Single or multi-company business accounting system and method for same including account number maintenance

ABSTRACT

A computer implemented method for account number maintenance used within a single or multi-company accounting system is provided. The method comprises at a processor, performing the account number maintenance on at least one of a plurality of accounts. Each of the accounts has a plurality of account segments. Performing the account number maintenance includes at least one of i) renaming the account segment of at least one of the accounts; ii) changing a length the account segment of at least one of the accounts from a first defined length having a first number of characters to a new defined length having a second number of characters; iii) changing the account segment of at least one of the accounts; iv) merging two or more of the accounts into one of the accounts; and v) splitting one of the accounts into two different accounts.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to and claims all available benefit of andpriority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/534,620 filed Aug. 3,2009, which claims priority to provisional patent application 61/085,618filed Aug. 1, 2008, the entire contents of which are herein incorporatedby reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to business methods and theircorresponding systems, and more specifically, to a single ormulti-company business accounting system configured for operating on acomputer arrangement and corresponding methods of accounting for asingle or multi-company business including account number maintenance.

2. Background

A multi-company business is a business that operates financially withinseveral companies. The companies may be centralized or decentralized andgeographically disbursed. In order to operate the multi-company businessit is necessary to track money into and out of the consolidated group ofcompanies.

Accountants generally enter information into modules within theaccounting system. The main modules are Accounts Receivable (AR),Accounts Payable (AP), and Journals. AR and AP module data is moved to asub system journal. The AR and AP sub system journals, and the entriesmade directly to the Journal module are posted to a General Ledger,described below.

Accounting systems track the flow of money within an organization. TheBalance Sheet and the Income Statement are two main Financial Reportsthat the accounting system produces.

The Balance Sheet is a snapshot at one date for a company, or a list ofcompanies. The equation for a Balance Sheet is as follows:Assets=Liability+Owner Equity.

The Income Statement shows profitability between a starting date and anending date. The equation for an Income Statement is as follows:Revenue−Expenses=Income.

The Financial Reports are generated from data stored in the GeneralLedger (GL). The GL stores a line for each entry made to the system.Each GL line contains the GL Account, the amount of money stored as aDebit or a Credit, and a GL Date. Each GL Account defines:

-   -   Account Type—e.g., Asset, Liability, Owner Equity, Revenue,        Expense;    -   Company Balancing Segment; and    -   Any number of Business Segments such as office, region,        department, sales channel, and/or etc.

An Income Statement can be generated for any combination of AccountSegment selections. For example, an Income Statement can be for anoffice, a region, or an office for a specific list of companies.

A Balance Sheet is generated using the Company Segment. The totalactivity for Assets, Liabilities, and owner Equity accounts will onlybalance for a company as a whole. The activity will not balance for theother segments, such as an office or region. For example, a company maypurchase new furniture for multiple offices. The Bank Account is reduced(credited) one time for the cost of the furniture, each office has itsFurniture Asset Account increased (debited) by the value of thefurniture placed in that office. Another example is that Revenue andExpenses are usually tracked by office and other Business Segments, butthe company only has one Bank Account and Retained Earnings Account.

Existing systems that claim to be multi-company mean that they share thecustomers and vendors. More advanced existing multi-company systemsshare one GL for storing the information, but they only allow a user toreport on either one company at a time or all of the companies in thegroup or system as a consolidated whole.

The existing accounting systems force the accountant to manually enterthe inter-company “Due To/Due From” entries to keep each company inbalance. This is a huge burden, as nearly 30% of the accounting entriesare inter-company balancing entries.

The existing accounting systems do not allow a single AR Invoice or APVoucher to have accounts using different companies on the detail linesof the Invoice or Voucher. Moreover, providing various levels of securedaccess to different accountants and other users of the accounting systemcan be problematic especially for an accounting system configured for amulti-company group. Accordingly, further improvements and enhancementsare needed for accounting methods and associated systems that can beused for a single or multi-company business.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, a computerimplemented method for account number maintenance used within a singleor multi-company accounting system that operates on a computerarrangement and which is accessible by one or more persons defining aninterface user is provided. The method comprises at a processor,performing the account number maintenance on at least one of a pluralityof accounts within the single or multi-company accounting system. Eachof the accounts has a plurality of account segments defining the accountincluding a natural account segment, a company segment, and one or morebusiness segments. The natural account segment defines a specific typeof one of an asset, a liability, an owner equity, a revenue and anexpense. The company segment is associated with one of one or morecompanies that is associated with the accounting system. The one or morebusiness segments each has a definable category for tracking moneywithin the accounting system. Performing the account number maintenanceincludes at least one of i) renaming the account segment of at least oneof the accounts to define a renamed account segment; ii) changing alength the account segment of at least one of the accounts from a firstdefined length having a first number of characters to a new definedlength having a second number of characters that is different than thefirst number of characters; iii) changing the account segment of atleast one of the accounts; iv) merging two or more of the accounts intoone of the accounts; and v) splitting one of the accounts into twodifferent accounts that includes an old account and a new account.

In one aspect, the step of renaming the account segment includesrenaming one of the natural account segment, the company segment, andthe one or more business segments. If the natural account segment isrenamed, then the single or multi-company accounting system allows theinterface user to redefine the natural account segment to any one of theasset, liability, owner equity, revenue and expense specific types ofaccounts.

In another aspect, the step of renaming the account segment includes thesingle or multi-company accounting system automatically changing all ofthe account numbers for the associated accounts having the same valuefor the corresponding account segment by replacing the same value in thecorresponding account segment with the value of the renamed accountsegment.

In one other aspect, the step of renaming the account segment includesthe single or multi-company accounting system automatically checkingthat the value of the renamed account segment does not duplicate anexisting value for the corresponding account segment.

In yet another aspect, the step of renaming the account segment does notchange the general ledger.

In one aspect, the step of changing a length of one of the accountsegments includes the single or multi-company accounting system allowingthe interface user to change the length of the account segment such thatthe second number of characters is less than the first number ofcharacters. The single or multi-company accounting system automaticallychecks that the value of the renamed account segment does not duplicatean existing value for the corresponding account segment of the accountsand if so, then the single or multi-company accounting system blocks theinterface user from changing the length to produce a duplicated value.

In one other aspect, the step of changing a length of one of the accountsegments includes the single or multi-company accounting system allowingthe interface user to change the length of the account segment such thatthe second number of characters is greater than the first number ofcharacters. The single or multi-company accounting system automaticallyadds default characters for characters added to the first number ofcharacters to define the second number of characters.

In another aspect, the step of changing a length of one of the accountsegments does not change the general ledger.

In yet another aspect, the step of changing the account segment includeschanging one of the natural account segment and the one or more businesssegments. The single or multi-company accounting system does not allowchanges to the company segment.

In one other aspect, the single or multi-company accounting systemautomatically checks that a duplicate account to one of the existingaccounts is not being created when the business segment is being changedand if so, then the single or multi-company accounting system blocks theinterface user from changing the business segment.

In one aspect, the step of changing the account segment does not changethe general ledger.

In one other aspect, the step of merging two or more of the accountsincludes the interface user entering into the single or multi-companyaccounting system via the computer arrangement a first existing segmentvalue to replace a second existing segment value of the natural accountsegments. The first existing segment value corresponds to a firstplurality of accounts and the second segment value corresponds to asecond plurality of accounts. The interface user enters into the singleor multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement aspecified criteria for merging the accounts. The single or multi-companyaccounting system merges the second accounts in with the first accountsbased on the specified criteria including replacing the second existingsegment value for each of the second accounts with the first existingsegment value of the natural account segment to define merged firstaccounts. The specified criteria comprising the natural account segment,the company segment, the one or more business segments, a time period,or a combination thereof.

In another aspect, the step of merging two or more of the accountschanges the general ledger.

In one other aspect, the step of merging two or more of the accountsincludes the interface user entering into the single or multi-companyaccounting system via the computer arrangement a first existing segmentvalue to replace a second existing segment value of a first businesssegment. The first existing segment value corresponds to a firstplurality of accounts and the second segment value corresponds to asecond plurality of accounts. The interface user enters into the singleor multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement aspecified criteria for merging the accounts. The single or multi-companyaccounting system merges the second accounts in with the first accountsbased on the specified criteria including replacing the second existingsegment value for each of the second accounts with the first existingsegment value of the first business segment to define merged firstaccounts. The specified criteria comprises the natural account segment,the company segment, the one or more business segments, a time period,or a combination thereof.

In yet another aspect, the step of splitting one of the accounts intotwo different accounts includes the interface user entering into thesingle or multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement anew segment value to replace an old segment value of the natural accountsegment. The interface user entering into the single or multi-companyaccounting system via the computer arrangement a specified criteria forsplitting the accounts. The single or multi-company accounting systemconverting the old account to a new account based on the specifiedcriteria including replacing the old segment value for the old accountwith the new segment value of the natural account segment to define thenew account. The specified criteria comprises the natural accountsegment, the company segment, the one or more business segments, a timeperiod, or a combination thereof. If the specified criteria includes thetime period, then prior to the time period specified the old accountexists in the single or multi-company accounting system and for the timeperiod specified the new account exists in the single or multi-companyaccounting system.

In one aspect, the step of splitting one of the accounts changes thegeneral ledger.

In another aspect, the single or multi-company accounting systemautomatically creates the new account if the new account did not alreadyexist.

In one other aspect, one of the business segments can be specified tomerge at least one additional account into the new account.

In another aspect, the step of splitting one of the accounts into twodifferent accounts includes the interface user entering into the singleor multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement a newsegment value to replace an old segment value of a first businesssegment. The interface user enters into the single or multi-companyaccounting system via the computer arrangement a specified criteria forsplitting the accounts. The single or multi-company accounting systemconverts the old account to a new account based on the specifiedcriteria including replacing the old segment value for the old accountwith the new segment value of the first business segment to define thenew account. The specified criteria comprises the natural accountsegment, the company segment, the one or more business segments, a timeperiod, or a combination thereof. If the specified criteria includes thetime period, then prior to the time period specified the old accountexists in the single or multi-company accounting system and for the timeperiod specified the new account exists in the single or multi-companyaccounting system.

In yet another aspect, the single or multi-company accounting systemautomatically creates the new account if the new account did not alreadyexist.

In one aspect, a second business segment can be specified to merge atleast one additional account into the new account.

In at least one other embodiment, a single or multi-company accountingsystem for providing a computer implemented method for account numbermaintenance and which is accessible by one or more persons defining aninterface user is provided. The system comprises a computer arrangementoperative to perform the account number maintenance on at least one of aplurality of accounts within the single or multi-company accountingsystem. Each of the accounts has a plurality of account segmentsdefining the account including a natural account segment, a companysegment, and one or more business segments. The natural account segmentdefines a specific type of one of an asset, a liability, an ownerequity, a revenue and an expense. The company segment is associated withone of one or more companies associated with the accounting system. Theone or more business segments each has a definable category for trackingmoney within the accounting system. Performing the account numbermaintenance includes at least one of i) renaming the account segment ofat least one of the accounts to define a renamed account segment; ii)changing a length the account segment of at least one of the accountsfrom a first defined length having a first number of characters to a newdefined length having a second number of characters that is differentthan the first number of characters; iii) changing the account segmentof at least one of the accounts; iv) merging two or more of the accountsinto one of the accounts; and v) splitting one of the accounts into twodifferent accounts that includes an old account and a new account.

In at least one other embodiment, a computer-readable storage mediumcomprising a set of instructions for providing a computer implementedmethod for account number maintenance used within a single ormulti-company accounting system which is accessible by one or morepersons defining an interface user is provided. The set of instructionsare to direct a processor to perform acts of performing the accountnumber maintenance on at least one of a plurality of accounts within thesingle or multi-company accounting system, each of the accounts having aplurality of account segments defining the account including a naturalaccount segment, a company segment, and one or more business segments.The natural account segment defines a specific type of one of an asset,a liability, an owner equity, a revenue and an expense. The companysegment is associated with one of one or more companies associated withthe accounting system. The one or more business segments each has adefinable category for tracking money within the accounting system.Performing the account number maintenance includes at least one of i)renaming the account segment of at least one of the accounts to define arenamed account segment; ii) changing a length the account segment of atleast one of the accounts from a first defined length having a firstnumber of characters to a new defined length having a second number ofcharacters that is different than the first number of characters; iii)changing the account segment of at least one of the accounts; iv)merging two or more of the accounts into one of the accounts; and v)splitting one of the accounts into two different accounts that includesan old account and a new account.

Further objects, features, and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent from consideration of the following description and theappended claims when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of an accounting system for a multi-companybusiness in accordance with an example of the present invention;

FIGS. 2 a and 2 b are an Entity-Relationship diagram in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 3 a and 3 b are an Entity-Relationship diagram in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an Entity-Relationship diagram in accordance with anotherembodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 5 a and 5 b are an Entity-Relationship diagram in accordance witha embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an Entity-Relationship diagram in accordance with anotherembodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 7 a and 7 b are an Entity-Relationship diagram in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a method for generating Account Receivableinvoices in accordance with an example of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a method for generating Account Receivableinvoice payments in accordance with an example of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is an illustrative embodiment of a computer arrangement forimplementing various embodiments of the accounting method and system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of a method for creating a Journal using amulti-company accounting system in accordance with an example of thepresent invention;

FIG. 12 is a flow chart of a method of Account Receivable using amulti-company accounting system in accordance with one example of thepresent invention;

FIG. 13 is a flow chart of a method of Account Payable using amulti-company accounting system in accordance with another example ofthe present invention;

FIG. 14 is a set of rules for Account Receivable and Account Payable inaccordance with one example of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a flow chart of a method of security using a multi-companyaccounting system in accordance with an example of the presentinvention;

FIG. 16 is a flow chart of a method for Financial Reporting using amulti-company accounting system in accordance with one example of thepresent invention;

FIG. 17 is a flow chart of a method for producing an account balanceusing a multi-company accounting system in accordance with anotherexample of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a first screen shot of an example of the present invention;

FIG. 19 is a second screen shot of another example of the presentinvention;

FIG. 20 is a third screen shot of one example of the present invention;

FIG. 21 is a fourth screen shot of an example of the present invention;

FIG. 22 is a fifth screen shot of one example of the present invention;

FIG. 23 is a sixth screen shot of another example of the presentinvention;

FIG. 24 is a seventh screen shot of yet another example of the presentinvention;

FIG. 25 is an eighth screen shot of an example of the present invention;

FIG. 26 is a ninth screen shot of another example of the presentinvention;

FIG. 27 is a tenth screen shot of yet another example of the presentinvention;

FIG. 28 is an operational flow diagram of a method for performingaccount number maintenance for a computer implemented accounting systemin accordance with an example of the present invention;

FIG. 29 is an eleventh screen shot of an example of the presentinvention;

FIG. 30 is an operational flow diagram of a method of performing vendoraccount maintenance for a computer implemented accounting system inaccordance with an example of the present invention;

FIG. 31 is a twelfth screen shot of an example of the present invention;

FIG. 32 is a thirteenth screen shot of another example of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 33 is a fourteenth screen shot of yet another example of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein. Itis understood however, that the disclosed embodiments are merelyexemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various andalternative forms. The figures may be configured to show the details orhighlights of a particular method and system and therefore, specificdetails disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting butmerely as a representative basis for the claims and for teaching oneskilled in the art to practice the present invention.

Multi-Company Process Technical Overview

In at least one embodiment of the present invention and with referenceto FIGS. 5 a-5 b, each company at 12 and 14 of a Multi-Company group at16 is assigned a distinct Company Segment at 20 that identifies theparticular company. Each account at 22 within the accounting system(e.g. Multi-Company accounting methods embedded in software or any othersuitable form operating on a computer arrangement to define the system)is made up of a Natural Account Segment at 24, the Company Segment at 20and any number of Business Segments at 26 and 28. The Natural AccountSegment identifies the specific type of account as one of an Asset,Liability, Owner Equity, Revenue or Expense. The Business Segments areassociated with a particular channel for tracking money flow, such asfor example, an office, region, department, sales channel, and/or etc.

Each company of the Multi-Company group is also assigned a specialMulti-Company Natural Account Segment at 30, which is a Natural AccountSegment at 20 defining an Asset type account (or alternatively aLiability type account) and is used when “Due To/Due From” intercompanyentries are needed. This special Multi-Company Natural Account Segment,combined with the Company Segment, allows a GL Account at 22 to belongto one company, while specifically referencing another company involvedin a multi-company entry. A multi-company “Due To/Due From” entryrelates both companies involved in a Multi-Company transaction. TheCompany Segment defines one of the companies, and the specialMulti-Company Natural Segment defines the other.

For example, suppose the company under consideration is a nationalconglomerate company called National Financial Group (NFG). This parentgroup contains 3 companies, a Financial Services Company (with CompanySegment—FIN), a Mortgage Company (with Company Segment—MRT), and a Taxpreparation company (with Company Segment—TAX). The accounting systemwould have 4 companies defined with the following Multi-Company NaturalSegments (MC segment):

1. National Financial Group (NFG) with MC segment 14010

2. Mortgage Company (MRT) with MC segment 14011

3. Financial Services Company (FIN) with MC segment 14012

4. Tax Preparation (TAX) with MC segment 14013

The group of companies may use an Accounting chart of accounts, having 5digits for the Type of Account (e.g. Natural Account Segment), 3alpha-numeric digits for the Company Segment, and uses a BusinessSegment for Office which is 3 characters representing the city where theoffice is located. The example company could have used any number ofBusiness Segments, but in this example the Business Segment is beinglimited to just the city where the office is located.

-   -   The Natural Accounts Segments may use the convention of starting        an Asset with a 1, a Liability with a 2, Owner Equity with a 3,        Revenue with a 4, and Expense with a 5. For example, various        Natural Account Segments may be defined as follows:    -   11000 is General Checking    -   11200 is Accounts Receivable    -   14010 is Multi-Company Due From To NFG    -   14011 is Multi-Company Due From To MRT    -   14012 is Multi-Company Due From To FIN    -   14013 is Multi-Company Due From To TAX    -   21200 is Accounts Payable    -   30300 is Current Earnings    -   30400 is Retained Earnings    -   41000 is Services revenue    -   51000 is Rent expense    -   52000 is Payroll expense.    -   The typical GL Accounts (e.g. Natural Account Segment-Company        Account Segment-one or more Business Segments) may appear as:    -   11000-NFG-_ for General Checking-National Financial Group-No        City    -   11000-MRT-_ for General Checking-Mortgage-No City    -   11200-MRT-_ for Accounts Receivable-Mortgage-No City    -   30300-MRT-_ for Current Earnings-Mortgage-No City    -   41000-MRT-NYC for Services Revenue-Mortgage-New York City    -   41000-MRT-DET for Services Revenue-Mortgage-Detroit. Any other        suitable convention or arrangement of accounts may be        substituted as well.

As shown above, each GL Account is made up of one Natural AccountSegment, one Company Segment, and one Business Segment. Also, theBalance Sheet Accounts (e.g. Asset, Liability, or Owner Equity accounts)may use a Business Segment that uses a default value meaning noparticular segment or unspecified.

Initially, no multi-company GL Accounts are assembled using the SpecialMulti-Company Natural Segments defined above. This is because a pair ofcompanies may not have participated in a multi-company transaction. Eachtime a multi-company transaction (e.g. AP Voucher, AR Invoice, Journal,Check, Deposit, etc.) is entered, the system determines the need forbalancing multi-company entries, and creates the pair of accounts (e.g.one account in each company) if they were not created already.

The system keeps track of the multi-company “Due To/Due From” using theMulti-Company matrix (represented below):

TABLE Multi-Company Matrix:

In one example, if an accountant wants to transfer $100.00 from GeneralChecking for the Mortgage company to General Checking for the parentGroup company, the accountant would enter into a Journal 32 only 2entries:

Credit 11000-MRT-_ for $100 (reduces the MRT bank by 100)

Debit 11000-NFG-_ for $100 (increases NFG bank by 100).

The system will automatically notice that the accountant's entriesrequire 2 multi-company lines to track the money, and to keep each ofthe companies in balance. The system will automatically add thefollowing multi-company lines:

Debit 14010-MRT for $100 (means MRT is owed 100 by NFG)

Credit 14011-NFG for $100 (means NFG owes MRT 100).

Multi-Company Journal Details

Referring also to FIG. 4, journal entries at 34 are used by accountantsfor general purpose accounting entries. The detail lines of a Journalmust be in balance meaning that the Debits=Credits at 36 and 38 by GLDate at 40.

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, each journal hasone main company. If the detail lines contain accounts using differentcompanies, the system will automatically generate a pair ofmulti-company lines. The system will sum the money on all of the detaillines, grouping the sum by company and GL Date. Added to the pair ofmulti-company lines will be each GL Date for each company. Themulti-company pair is between the main company for the Journal, and oneof the other companies associated with the detail lines.

Most Journals are single company, so the system may have a multi-companycheck box 42 allowing the accountant to limit the detail line accountchoices to the main company of the Journal.

An Example of Creating a New Journal

Referring to FIG. 11, in one example the following steps are performedfor creating a new Journal at 44:

-   -   1) The accountant selects a main company at 46 for the Journal.    -   2) The accountant selects a main GL Date for the detail lines of        the Journal.    -   3) The accountant enters detail lines at 48 for the Journal.        Each detail line has a GL Account, and a Debit and Credit        Amount. Specific GL Dates can be entered for each of the detail        lines, if the journal will specify more than one GL Date.

An Example of Saving a New Journal

The system in one example does the following steps for saving a newJournal comprising:

-   -   1) Check if a main company has been selected.    -   2) Check if a main GL Date has been selected.    -   3) Check if the Journal has already been released.    -   4) Check that each Detail Line has an account, and a Debit or        Credit.    -   5) Check that the Journal has at least one detail line.    -   6) If the Journal is a special year end closing journal, then        each detail line must be the same GL Date.    -   7) The system assigns the next available Journal Number to the        Journal    -   8) The Journal data is saved to the database (e.g. maintained on        the server of the computer arrangement) as a draft journal.    -   9) The journal may not be saved to the General Ledger until it        is verified and posted. No multi-company checks or modifications        are done at this time. This allows an accountant to save the        work, and complete it at a later point in time. This also allows        a junior accountant to enter the data for the Journal, then have        a senior accountant review the Journal and post the Journal to        the General Ledger.

An Example of Saving an Edited Journal

Saving an Edited Journal includes the same steps as Saving a New Journalillustrated above and includes the following additional steps:

-   -   1) Check if someone else has edited and saved the journal while        it was being edited.    -   2) Check if someone else has deleted the journal while you were        editing it.    -   3) Check if someone else released the journal while you were        editing it.    -   4) Check if this is a special AR or AP sub system journal. If        so, disallow changing money amounts.    -   5) If the journal has been released, disallow changing Debit and        Credit amounts.    -   6) If the journal has been released, disallow adding or deleting        detail lines.

An Example of Releasing a Journal

Releasing a Journal at 50 includes:

-   -   1) Check if someone else has already released the journal.    -   2) Check if the journal has already been posted to the General        Ledger.    -   3) Validate the Journal

An Example of Validating a Journal

Validating a Journal includes at least one of general validations andbalanced validations as outlined below.

General Validations

In one example, general validations includes:

-   -   1) Check that the Journal has detail rows.    -   2) Check that the Journal is released.    -   3) Check that the Journal is not already posted to the General        Ledger.    -   4) Optionally check if the Journal is using any deactivated        accounts.    -   5) Optionally check if the Journal is using the Accounts        Receivable Account and is not an AR sub system journal. Accounts        Receivable balances should be maintained by the AR sub system,        using AR Invoices and AR Payments.    -   6) Optionally check if the Journal is using the Accounts Payable        Account and is not an AP sub system journal. Accounts Payable        balances should be maintained by the AP sub system, using AP        Vouchers and AP Payments.    -   7) Optionally check if the Journal is directly using the Current        Earnings or Retained Earnings Accounts. These accounts are        supposed to be system generated by the summation of all past        Revenue—all past Expense for each company.    -   8) Check if the Journal is using a GL Date in a closed period.

Balance Validations

In one example, balance validations includes:

-   -   1) Check that the total Debits=total Credits.    -   2) Check that the total Debits=total Credits for each GL Date in        the Journal.    -   3) Check that no line uses an entry specifying money in an        increment less than 1 cent.    -   4) If a Zero Balance Account is used, check that the summation        of Debits=Credits by Natural Account Segment, by Company and by        GL Date for the entries using the Zero Balance Natural Account.        A Zero Balance Natural Account may be used to allocate money        across Business Segments, such as across offices, while making        sure that the total balance for the Natural Account within a        company for a GL Date remains zero.

Add Multi-Company Entries before Posting the Journal

An example of the system automatically adding Multi-Company entries at52 includes:

-   -   1) Delete any detail lines using the special Multi-Company        Natural Accounts. If an accountant tries to enter these accounts        manually, the manual entries may be deleted so that the system        can guarantee that the multi-company accounts are exactly        accurate and add to 0.00 across all companies.    -   2) Check that there are detail lines remaining after deleting        the multi-company lines.    -   3) Validate the Journal again, doing all of the steps in        Validating a Journal.    -   4) Count the distinct Company Segments used in the journal        detail lines.    -   5) If every detail line in the Journal is for the same company,        then:        -   a) If the main company of the journal is a different            company, then:            -   I. Show the user an error that the Journal has detail                lines for only one company, and the main company should                be specified as the company that the detail lines use.                It does not make sense to have a multi-company Journal                if all the detail lines use the same company.    -   6) If there are exactly 2 distinct companies used in the journal        detail lines, then:        -   a) If the main company of the Journal is not one of the 2            companies used in the detail lines, then:            -   I. Show the user an error that the Journal has detail                lines for exactly 2 companies. The main company should                be specified as one of the companies that the detail                lines use.            -   II. It may have been possible to change the main company                to one of the companies used in the detail lines;                however, an error is raised instead, letting the                accountant know he may have made an error.    -   7) If there are more than 2 distinct companies used in the        journal detail lines, then:        -   a) Show the user an error if the main company for the            journal is not one of the companies used in the detail            lines.    -   8) The system creates the Multi Company Matrix (e.g. maintained        on the server) for the companies used. The matrix        (Table—Multi-Company Matrix shown above) is represented above as        a table with the Special Multi-Company Natural Segments, and the        empty diagonal gray boxes representing that a company does not        do multi-company entries with itself.        -   a) The matrix has each of the GL Account Company Segments            used. Each cell represents the GL Account that is made from            the Special Multi-Company Natural Segment, the Company            Segment, and a default (e.g. usually underscores or zeros)            value for each of the business segments defined. This means            the multi-company Due To/Due From accounts do not try to            capture intra-company activity at the business segment            level, such as region, office, city, etc., because the            Multi-Company accounts are Balance Sheet accounts.        -   b) Sum the Debits—Credits by Company Segment and GL Date for            the Journal Detail lines that do not use the main Company            Segment of the Journal.        -   c) If the Multi-Company account is not already in the            Multi-Company Matrix (the system has not seen this company            pair used before), then:            -   I. The system creates two new Multi-Company accounts                using both combinations of the Special Multi-Company                Natural Segment for one company, and the Company Segment                of the other company, and uses the default business                segment (usually zeros or underscores) for each of the                Business Segments defined.        -   d) For each sum of Debits—Credits by Company and GL Date            that is not 0.00, then the system will add two new lines to            the Journal details using the Multi-Company Matrix accounts.            The two new lines will keep in balance that Company A (e.g.            hypothetically part of a multi-company group including            Company A and Company B) is owed money by Company B, and            Company B owes money to Company A. The two new rows will            also be marked with a special flag called IsMultiCompany            that indicates that these rows are system generated            multi-company rows.    -   9) Validate the Journal one more time doing all of the steps        defined above in Validating a Journal.    -   10) If new Multi-Company Matrix accounts were created, update        the security model (described later in detail) to allow the user        to see the Multi-Company Matrix accounts.

An Example of Posting the Journal to the General Ledger

Referring also to FIG. 6, an example of posting the Journal at 54comprising:

-   -   1) Write the Journal detail lines to the General Ledger at 56.    -   2) Update the Journal to mark it as posted. Record who posted        it, and when it was posted.    -   3) Delete the Journal detail Lines. They are no longer needed        because the data is now in the General Ledger.

AR Module

With reference to FIGS. 1, 3 a-3 b, and 12 in at least one embodiment ofthe present invention, the Accounts Receivable (AR) Module at 58 differsfrom the Journals because the AR and Accounts Payable (AP) modules at 60track Accrual and Cash separately and also keep track of AccountReceivable and Accounts Payable before the invoice or voucher is paid.The AR Invoices 61 keep track of the multi-company entries, but they doit using a different approach than Journals. Because the Invoices arenot yet paid, for normal Accrual accounting, it is much more accurateand useful to keep the multi-company entries using the Natural AccountSegment, which in this embodiment is the Accounts Receivable account,for each company. When an Invoice gets paid, the Accounts Receivableaccounts are brought back to zero, the check is deposited to one of thecompany's bank accounts, and the system then uses the Multi-CompanyMatrix “Due To/Due From” accounts to track the entries and keep eachcompany in balance. For cash accounting, no “Due To/Due From” entry ismade when the invoice is created. When the Invoice is paid, the checkgoes to un-deposited funds and then to the bank. Instead of bringingAccounts Receivable back to zero, the money may be proportionallyapplied to the accounts that were used on the Invoice details. If theInvoice was a multi-company invoice, and it is short paid by the client,the system allows you to proportionally apply the payment to allcompanies involved on the invoice, or optionally to pay specific amountsof money for each company.

For example, if a $1000 invoice is issued to a client with $600 forcompany A and $400 for company B, the client may say he liked the workdone by company A but was disappointed in the work done by Company B, sohe only pays $900, which short pays the Invoice by $100. In thisexample, the accountant would apply $600 of the payment to the invoicefor Company A and $300 for Company B. The Multi-Company pair of rowswould be written both for Accrual and Cash saying that Company B is owed$300 by Company A (assuming the $900 check was deposited to Company A)and Company A owes $300 to Company B. The Invoice would show anoutstanding balance of $100. When the accountant does a Credit Memo forBad Debt for $100 for the invoice, the system recognizes that Company Awas fully paid, and Company B has to absorb the entire $100 Bad Debtexpense. The system will keep track how much money the accountant saysbelongs to each company. If the accountant tried to apply $700 toCompany A and $200 to Company B, the system would raise an error sayingthat Company A only had $600 worth of Invoice details, so the maximumthat can be applied to Company A is $600.

AR for Typical Multi-Company Accounting Systems

Existing systems that claim to be multi-company share their customers.This means each company must send a separate invoice to a common client.However, these systems do not allow Multiple Company detail lines(usually revenue type detail lines) on a single Invoice.

Examples of AR Multi Company Strategies

Four possible AR Multi-Company strategies are as follows:

-   -   1) Force the accountant to manually enter the Multi-Company rows        for an Invoice.    -   2) Do not enter Multi-Company rows for an Invoice. When the AR        information is sub system journaled, add aggregate Multi-Company        rows to balance the sub system journal.    -   3) Add Multi-Company “Due To/Due From” entries to each invoice.    -   4) Track Multi-Company data at the Accounts Receivable level for        normal Accrual accounting before the Invoice is paid. Use “Due        To/Due From” accounts when the Invoice is paid. For the cash        General Ledger, do nothing before the Invoice is paid.        Proportionally apply the payments to the invoice detail company        revenue accounts when the invoice is paid. Use “Due To/Due From”        accounts to balance the books when a customer check is recorded        to undeposited funds of one of the company's bank accounts.

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the system andmethod employ the concept disclosed in the foregoing fourth strategy,which is preferably the most comprehensive. It is also believed to beadvantageous for the accountants. The detailed explanation that followswill review at least one embodiment in accordance with the presentinvention.

AR Multi-Company Detail Process

Some examples of Multi-Company processing work are sub system journalingInvoices, receiving payments for Invoices, and creating credit memos forInvoices. AR activity such as creation of Invoices, applying payments toInvoices, credit memos, and deposit slips are done in the AR module. TheAR module ensures that the Debits and Credits for each entry are inbalance. The AR module does not handle the Multi-Company processingbalancing issues, but it does allow Multi-Company detail lines to be onan Invoice, and it does allow a check paid to a Multi-Company Invoice tohave its company amounts specified, or proportionally applied. All ARactivity is written to the General Ledger. AR activity is sub-systemjournaled, and the Journal is posted to the General Ledger. The subsystem journal does its own checks for out of balance conditions, andalso does the Multi-Company business processing for balancing.

AR Module Multi-Company AR Invoice Creation

With reference also to FIG. 8 in at least one embodiment of the presentinvention, the accountant chooses a client address for creating theinvoice at 62. The system searches for the most recent Invoice enteredfor that client address. If no Invoices are found for that clientaddress, the system chooses the most recent invoice at 63 for thatclient (a client may have more than one address). If an Invoice isfound, the main company of the existing Invoice is used as the defaultfor the new invoice. When the company is changed, the system chooses theAccounts Receivable account for that company as the main AccountsReceivable for the invoice. If this is a Multi-Company Invoice at 65,each company will track its own Accounts Receivable using systemgenerated multi-company detail lines. The detail lines will be added inpairs using negative (Credit) Accounts Receivable for the main company,and positive (Debit) Accounts Receivable lines for the other company.

The accountant enters an Invoice total at 64, any discount terms, andthen enters Invoice detail lines at 66. Discount terms are optional. Forexample, the Invoice may offer a 2% discount if paid within 10 days,with the balance due in full in 30 days. This is called “2 ten net 30”.The system supports multiple discounts, with each discount described asa percent or a specific amount of money. Each detail line has a GLAccount (usually a Revenue GL Account with full business segmentationdefined), a Credit amount of money (Credits are positive for Revenue),and optionally a description and other attributes such as tying thedetail line to a specific client project or employee, or a pass throughrevenue. Pass through revenue is used if this work will be done by anoutside vendor that must get paid when the Invoice payment is received.

Saving and/or Editing an Invoice

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the system performsthe following steps for saving and/or editing an invoice at 67:

-   -   1) Checks if a main company has been selected for the invoice.    -   2) Checks if an Invoice total has been entered.    -   3) Checks if the user entered at least one detail line.    -   4) Checks if all detail lines have a GL Account and a money        amount.    -   5) Checks if all optionally entered discounts have a discount        date and amount.    -   6) Checks if the sum of detail lines adds to the Invoice total.    -   7) Checks if an Invoice description has been entered.

Each invoice detail line may be taxable, either at the state level, orat the Federal level if Federal Excise Tax (“FET”) is used. Each companyhas a setup option indicating if it collects sales tax. The Sales Taxand Federal Excise Tax Natural Account Segments are globally set up forall companies in the system. Each company has its own tax GL Accountsmade up of the Sales Tax or Federal Excise Tax Natural Segment, and itsown Company Segment.

The system will add up the taxable detail lines for each company and addnew aggregate system generated detail lines to the Invoice for thecorrect tax amount. One line will be added for each company's State orFET tax as needed. The State tax can be calculated using either StateTax Rates, or County Tax Rates based on the State of the client addressused for the invoice.

The following additional steps may be performed for saving and/orediting an invoice:

-   -   8) If Editing an Invoice, check that no other accountant changed        the data while the accountant was editing the invoice. Another        accountant may have added, edited or deleted information on the        same invoice.    -   9) If Editing an Invoice, the Invoice may have already been        “released”. If it has been released, the accountant cannot        change accounting data that would affect the General Ledger.        This includes:        -   a) Check if the main Debit account of the Invoice has            changed.        -   b) Check if the Invoice Total has changed.        -   c) Check if any detail line total has changed.        -   d) Check if any detail line has been deleted or added.        -   e) Check if any account has changed on a detail line.    -   10) Check if the accountant is entering a possible duplicate        invoice. Check the invoice amount and PO number. If it is a        possible duplicate number, warn the accountant and let the        accountant specify if the system should continue to save the        invoiced.

In this embodiment, the safety checks of an Invoice are done. However,it may be possible that the accountant changed the main company for theinvoice. Thus, the following additional steps may be performed forsaving and/or editing the Invoice:

-   -   11) Get the Natural Account Segment and Company Segment for the        main account of the Invoice. This is usually the Accounts        Receivable Account for the main company of the Invoice. This        account will be used for the Debit to the General Ledger for the        Invoice total.    -   12) If editing an Invoice, the accountant may have changed the        main company. If the main company has changed, a new invoice        number will be needed. Each company maintains a sequential list        of invoice numbers. The invoice number also includes the Company        Segment as part of the number.    -   13) If this is a new invoice, then a new invoice number is        needed.    -   14) If a new invoice number is needed, then use the next AR        Invoice Number for the main company of the Invoice. Each company        stores its own invoice number sequence counter for generating an        Invoice Number.    -   15) Save the Invoice to the database.

No Multi-Company processing has taken place yet. The Invoice is savedwith detail lines that may span multiple companies. At this point, theInvoice is only in the AR sub system. It is not in the General Ledger.In this example, the system will handle Multi-Company processing whenthe Invoice is sub system journaled. However, in other examples, some ofthe Multi-Company processing (e.g. adding Multi-Company balancing lines)may be handled during saving, releasing or posting the AR journal.

Sub System Journal AR Invoices

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, all AR activity,such as for example Invoices, Credit Memos, Received Checks, Deposits,happen in the AR sub system of the accounting database. The AR subsystem is not in the General Ledger. Financial reports, such as theBalance Sheet and the Income Statement come from the General Ledger(GL). The GL is only populated from Journals, by “posting” Journals tothe GL. AR activity is sub-system journaled so the Journal can be postedto the General Ledger. The sub system journal process also adds theMulti-Company balancing lines at 68. It will add pairs of AccountsReceivable lines to the Invoice Details, to keep each company AccountsReceivable in balance. When the Invoice is paid at 70, the system willuse the Multi-Company matrix to add pairs of Multi-Company “Due To/DueFrom” lines at 72 to the check payments for example. This is because thecheck gets deposited to the main company of the Invoice, but some of theRevenue may come from the other companies.

Examples of AR Sub System General Accounting Entries

The following are some examples of the AR sub system general accountingentries and/or results:

The AR Invoices (many side ARInvoiceDetails)

-   -   Accrual GL—increase Accounts Receivable, increase Revenue.    -   Cash GL—nothing.    -   AR Invoice Checks (many side ARInvoicePayments).    -   Accrual GL—increase undeposited funds, reduce Accounts        Receivable.    -   Cash GL—increase undeposited funds, increase revenue.    -   AR Invoice Check Deposits (many side ARInvoiceChecks).    -   Accrual GL and Cash GL—increase bank, reduce undeposited funds.

Multi-Company AR Invoices are handled by the sub system journal byadding new rows to the AR Invoice Details. The new rows have the sameNatural Segment as the one side of the Invoice (e.g. main account of theInvoice—usually Accounts Receivable) and the Company Segment as neededto keep Accounts Receivable in balance at all times. There is no need tohave “Due To/Due From” entries at this point, because money has not yetcome in. The system will use the Multi-Company matrix as needed for ARInvoice Checks. If this is the first time a Multi-Company entry is beingmade between the two companies, the system will add two new entries tothe Multi-Company matrix.

AR Sub System Journal Detail Process

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the system firstidentifies the exact AR entries that will be sub system journaled. Thesystem decides what entries to use based on:

-   -   1) AR entries that have not already been sub system journaled.    -   2) AR entries that are released.    -   3) AR entries that the accountant can see given his security.    -   4) AR entries with a GL Date in a date range entered by the        accountant.    -   5) AR entries using the main company in a list of companies        specified by the accountant.

A logical blank Multi-Company Matrix is created. The matrix holds aGLAccountID, a CompanyID for the Account, and the matrix (other)CompanyID for the Account. The matrix will be filled as needed. If theneeded Multi-Company accounts do not exist (this pair of companies hadnot previously been used in the system in an AR or AP or Journal entry),the Multi-Company accounts will be created.

Typical sub system journals are done once for each day (GL Date). Whenconverting data, a sub system journal may be done for each year. In thiscase, the system will process one month at a time. This greatlyincreases the speed of the processing.

Journal numbers are typically globally unique across all companies. Thismeans each company does not have its own set of Journal numbers. This isdifferent from Invoices, where each company does have its own set ofinvoice numbers. The system gets the next journal number to be used forthis sub system journal. A Journal has a main company, which can be usedfor searching. A sub system journal may span multiple companies. Thesystem chooses the main company for the journal based on the maincompany of one of the sub system entries (Invoice, Check, and Deposit).This main company for the sub system journal will not be used in theMulti-Company entries added to each Invoice or Check payment.

A transaction is started, and the AR module entries to be processed aremarked. This is done to protect the data if multiple accountants try tocreate sub system journals at the exact same time.

The system checks if any entry is in a closed period. Generally acceptedaccounting procedures dictate that accountants close past periods, suchas a month or a year. In this example, the system will not allow changesin closed periods.

The system processes each AR module entry one at a time.

Sub System Process AR Invoices

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the following stepsare for the sub system process of AR Invoices:

-   -   1) Get the main Natural Segment (usually Accounts Receivable),        Company Segment, and Invoice Amount for the invoice    -   2) Check that the sum of the invoice details matches the invoice        amount    -   3) Check that the detail lines do not use one of the accounts in        the Multi-Company matrix. The GL entries using the Multi-Company        matrix accounts are all system generated. This ensures that the        sum of activity for all Multi-Company matrix accounts will        balance by summing to zero.    -   4) Check that the detail lines are not using the Current        Earnings or Retained Earnings accounts. The system ensures that        the Current and Retained earnings will always add up to exactly        the sum of the Revenue minus Expense accounts for all time.

Sub System Process AR Invoices Main Multi-Company Processing for AccrualGeneral Ledger

In at least one embodiment, if any detail line is using a company thatis different from the main company of the Invoice, then this is aMulti-Company Invoice. A pair of rows is added to the Invoice detail tokeep the monies in balance. The pair will use the same Natural Segmentof the main account of the invoice (usually Accounts Receivable) and thetotal of the detail lines for the other company other than the maincompany of the invoice. One of the lines will have the positive amount,and the other of the lines will have the negative amount (same amountbut negative).

With reference also to FIG. 14, if the Invoice is Multi-Company, thensystem checks that the companies on the detail lines of the Invoice areallowed to be on a Multi-Company Invoice. The system allows anadministrator to set rules at 200 at the company level to determine if acompany is allowed to be part of a Multi-Company Invoice. Another rulethat can be set at the company level is if the company can be the maincompany of a Multi-Company Invoice. Yet another rule that can be set isif the company is a holding company, and can be the main company of aMulti-Company invoice and not use any of its own accounts in the detailsof the invoice. This could be a holding company sending one Invoice to aclient for work done by subsidiary companies. These rules can also applyto the Account Payable side with respect to vouchers.

These entries are for the normal Accrual General Ledger. Typically,accounting systems track data based on the normal accrual system. Thismeans recognizing Revenue when the Invoice is sent out, not when it ispaid. The present invention may also tracks a Cash General Ledger. Noentries are made to the Cash GL when an invoice is created and posted.The Cash GL entries will be made when the invoice is paid. In oneembodiment, the following steps are performed:

-   -   1) Get the distinct other company segments that are used on the        invoice details.    -   2) For each “other” company, add the total of the detail lines.        -   a) Get the GL Account that uses the same Natural Segment and            the same Business Segments as the main company, but uses the            Company Segment of the other company. The main account of an            invoice usually uses Accounts Receivable as the Natural            Segment, and blank or default Business Segments. This is not            an account from the Multi-Company matrix. No money has been            received yet for this Invoice, so the Accounts Receivable            (really whatever Natural Segment was used for the main            invoice) can be properly tracked for each company used on            the Invoice. The system does allow any Natural or Business            Segments to be used. For example, a customer overpayment            does not use Accounts Receivable but rather, uses a Customer            Overpayment Liability Account for a special Invoice that            tracks customer overpayments.        -   b) Sum the Invoice Details for the “other” company. This sum            will become the Accounts Receivable amount for this company            for this Invoice.        -   c) Track Accounts Receivable for the other company. Insert a            new row in the Invoice details using the GL Account from two            steps above (usually Accounts Receivable). The Invoice            detail row will be marked as a special Multi-Company row.            The amount for the row will be the negative of the sum of            the detail lines for this invoice for the “other” company            (not the main company). The amount is negative because            Invoice details are Credited to the General Ledger. A            negative Credit is a Debit, because it is preferred to Debit            the sum of the detail lines for the “other” company, as            would normally happen for a single company Invoice.        -   d) Reduce Accounts Receivable for the main company. Insert a            new row in the Invoice details using the main GL Account            (usually Accounts Receivable) of the Invoice. The Invoice            detail row will be marked as a special Multi-Company row.            The amount for the row will be the positive of the sum of            detail lines for this invoice for the “other” company. The            amount is positive because Invoice details are Credited to            the General Ledger. A positive Credit is a negative Debit,            and it is preferred to reduce the Debit of the main Invoice            account by the sum of the detail lines for the “other”            company.    -   3) Write all of the detail lines to the sub system journal.

Entering a Check that Pays AR Invoices

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the accountantenters the client into the system that paid the check and the systemsearches for all open Invoices with outstanding balances for thatclient. The accountant enters the check number, check date, and amountof the check. The system can apply a discount to the invoice, such as a2% discount if paid within 10 days, with the balance due in 30 days.This is commonly referred to as “2 ten net 30”. If a discount ispossible, it is specified on the invoice. The accountant enters the datethat is used to check if the discount will apply. If the company that ispaying takes the discount, but pays 5 days after the discount period hasexpired, then the Invoice should not have a discount, but instead istreated as short a short payment. The system defaults the bank accountthat the check will be deposited to by looking at what bank account wasused for past deposits for this customer. The accountant can specify thebank account for this particular check. The bank account will be themain company for the check. All Invoice detail lines with a company thatis different from the company of the bank account will be treated asMulti-Company entries.

Pay Invoice Process Entering Checks from Clients into the System

With reference also to FIG. 9 in at least one embodiment of the presentinvention, AR Invoice Checks are received at 74 and applied tooutstanding Invoices. For normal Accrual accounting, the checks reducethe Natural Account Segment (e.g. Accounts Receivable) and increaseUndeposited Funds. For Cash accounting, the checks increase Revenue andincrease Undeposited Funds. At the end of the day, the checks will beput on a Deposit. The Deposit will reduce Undeposited Funds and increaseBank at 76. The checks may pay invoices that are Multi-Company Invoices.If so, the system will reduce the Natural Account Segment (e.g. AccountsReceivable) in each company, but only increase the Undeposited Funds forthe main company that will get the check deposit. The system will usethe Multi-Company matrix to add pairs of rows tracking the “Due To/DueFrom” between the companies at 78.

For example, a check may pay a Multi-Company Invoice that was for atotal of $1000, and $600 was for company A and $400 for company B, andthe main company on the Invoice was Company A. When the $1000 getsdeposited to Company A, Company A owes Company B $400 because $400 ofthe Invoice detail lines (usually revenue) were for Company B. TheAccounts Receivable for Company A will be reduced by $600 and theAccounts Receivable for Company B will be reduced by $400.

Most Invoices are paid in full at 80, so allowing the full payment orproportional processing of the payment greatly speeds up data entry forthe accountant. The accountant only enters the check amount, the systemdoes the rest. If an Invoice is short paid at 82, usually it will beproportionally applied. This also allows the accountant to enter justthe check amount and the system does the rest. The accountant only hasto enter specific amounts at 84 if he wants to control exactly how mucheach company should be paid.

The proportion is based on the current outstanding balances of theInvoice at the time of the check. The Invoice may have been partiallypaid before. Using the $1000 Invoice example from above ($600 forCompany A, $400 for Company B), if Company A had already been paid $550and Company B was already paid $250, then if a check came in for theremaining $200, Company A would get $50 applied and Company B would get$150 applied to bring each company to a zero balance.

If the check amount being applied will exactly pay off the outstandingbalance of the Invoice (which is the usual case), then the system doesnot even do a proportional calculation. The proportional calculationcould have a rounding error, causing a one cent (e.g. 1 penny) balancein one company, and a one cent overpayment in the other company. If acheck exactly pays off the current outstanding balance of the Invoice,the payment is applied to the companies on the Invoices based on theexact current outstanding balance of each of the companies.

If a client company short pays the Invoice, such as paying $800 insteadof $1000, the accountant can choose to proportionally apply the shortpayment (short $200), or to specify the amounts paid to each of thecompanies.

If the accountant chooses to proportionally apply the payment, thenCompany A gets ($600/$1000)*$800=$480 and Company B gets($400/$1000)*$800=$320. In this case, the Accounts Receivable forCompany A will receive $600−$480=$120, and the Accounts Receivable forCompany B will receive $400−$320=$80.

Alternatively, maybe Company A did a great job, and the full 200 shortpay should be applied to Company B. In this case, the accountant canspecify that $600 goes to Company A and $200 goes to Company B. TheAccounts Receivable for Company A will receive $0.00, and the AccountsReceivable for Company B will receive $400−$200=$200. Company A will oweCompany B only $200, because $200 of the $800 check was due to CompanyB.

Referring also to FIG. 18 is a screen shot #1 at 510 of an example ofthe Enter Received Checks screen.

In one embodiment, the system performs the following steps comprising:

-   -   1) Checks if a client payer was selected, and a check number,        check date and GL date were entered.    -   2) Checks that the total Pay Amounts (Pay Amt) applied to all        Invoices (one check can pay more than one Invoice) is equal or        less than the check amount. If a check payment is for more than        the current outstanding balance, it cannot be fully applied, and        the extra amount can be put on credit for the customer, or kept        as additional revenue (used if the overpay amount is small) or        returned to the client.    -   3) If the check payment is not fully applied, the system checks        that the accountant has chosen an overpayment method.    -   4) The system writes (e.g. records) the Check and the applied        payments to the AR Module.    -   5) If the accountant chose to enter specific company amounts,        the system checks that each company amount does not overpay the        amount currently outstanding for the company for the Invoice. In        the example from above of the $1000 Invoice with $600 to Company        A and $400 to Company B, if a check comes in for $800, the        system will not allow the accountant to specify that all $800        should pay Company A.    -   6) If the accountant specifies that the client took a discount        on the Invoice payment, the system checks that the discount        amount was allowed on the Invoice, and that the discount date        has not passed.    -   7) In many cases, the accountant just applies the check amount        to the Invoice and does not specify how much is for each of the        companies.    -   8) If the payment amount fully pays the remaining balance of the        Invoice (the Invoice may have been partially paid before, or it        may be fully paid now in one payment), the system will apply        payment rows associated with the check based on the exact amount        of the current outstanding balance for each company on the        Invoice. The current outstanding balance is the total amount of        the detail lines for a particular company on the Invoice minus        the payments that have already been made to this Invoice for the        particular company.    -   9) The payment row account uses the same Natural Account Segment        (usually Accounts Receivable) and Business Segments as the main        account of the Invoice. The main account of the Invoice is        usually Accounts Receivable. The system uses the specific        Company Segment of the applied payment. This is the step that        brings down the Accounts Receivable (usually) for each company        as the Invoices are paid.    -   10) If the accountant wants the payment to be proportionally        applied based on the current outstanding balance of each        company, the system will do the following:        -   a) Checks that the Invoice will not be overpaid by the            payment. This would create negative accounts receivable.        -   b) Gets the current outstanding balance for each company of            the Invoice. The current outstanding balance is the total            amount of the detail lines for a particular company on the            invoice minus the payments that have already been made to            this Invoice for the particular company, and this is done            for each of the companies on the Invoice.        -   c) The system checks that the total amount of the Invoice is            not zero. If it is zero, then the system tells the            accountant that he must enter the company specific amounts            for the payments. The system preferably does not            proportionally apply money to an Invoice whose total is 0.00            because dividing by 0 is mathematically undefined.        -   d) If this is the typical case of the Invoice having a            balance, and applying payments to the balance, then:            -   I. The system proportionally applies the payments by                dividing the current amount outstanding for each company                by the total amount outstanding for the Invoice. The                system rounds the result to two decimal places.            -   II. The rounding to two decimal places (e.g. 1 cent) may                have introduced a rounding error in the total payments                applied. The system will sum the proportional payments                and check the sum against the original payment amount.                If the amounts are different, then there is a rounding                error. The rounding error is typically 1 cent at most,                although each company could introduce up to a 1 cent                error, so if there are four companies, there could be up                to a 4 cent error. The system will take the rounding                error and apply it to the company with the largest                amount of the payment applied to its current outstanding                balance. This resolves the rounding error, and the                rounding error is applied to the largest number, so it                has the least percent effect.        -   e) If the Invoice was already paid in full, then the current            outstanding balance is zero. The accountant may also reverse            a payment. If this is being done, the system will use the            company totals for the original Invoice amounts to            proportionally apply the payment reversal so as to not            divide by zero.    -   11) If any Invoice was short paid, and the short pay amount will        be forgiven via a Credit Memo (e.g. QCM Quick Credit Memo check        box selected), the system will write the Credit Memo. The Credit        Memo is written after the check payment is applied to the        Invoice. The system will allocate Credit Memo detail lines based        on the amount outstanding for each company. The system will        write Credit Memo detail line accounts based in the Credit Memo        options of Bad Debt or Contra Revenue. If a Bad Debt Credit Memo        is being written, the system can use the Business Segments of        the account (examples are office, region, department) to be        added to the Bad Debt Account to define a Bad Debt with Business        Segments Credit Memo. The Credit Memo may be very complicated        for Multi-Company. Credit memo is discussed in more detail        below. The system code for Credit Memo is in        wsInvoice.GetInvoiceCreditMemo.

At this point the check payment is saved to the database. TheMulti-Company matrix “Due To/Due From” has not yet been used but will beused in the Sub System Pay Invoices Journal described below.

Sub System Pay Invoices Main Multi-Company Processing for Accrual andCash General Ledger

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the system firstgets the total amount of the check, and the main company for the check.The main company is the company on the undeposited funds (same companyassociated with the bank account for deposit) that the check will bedeposited into. In one example, the system performs the following stepscomprising:

-   -   1) Checks if the check payments to multiple companies, or to        over payment credits exactly adds to the check amount.    -   2) Checks if the accountant tried to use one of the        Multi-Company matrix accounts directly. These are automatically        maintained by the system.    -   3) Checks if the accountant tried to use Retained Earnings or        Current Earnings directly. These as automatically maintained by        the system.    -   4) The system identifies if there are any applied payments that        use a different company than the main company of the check        payment.        -   a) If there are no different companies used, then this is            not a Multi-Company check, and the system can use much            simpler processing.        -   b) If there are applied payment accounts that use a            different company, the system uses the Multi-Company matrix            to add in “Due To/Due From” inter-company accounts.

If the Check is a Multi-Company Check, the system preferably alsoperforms the following steps comprising:

-   -   1) The system deletes Special Multi-Company rows that use        accounts in the Multi-Company matrix. Normally there would not        be any of the Special Multi-Company rows at this point, but this        may be an edit of a previously journaled check.    -   2) The system totals the payments grouping by company. The        totals are for the Multi-Company payments. Payments made to the        main company of the check are not included. These totals for the        Multi-Company payments will become the amounts that are needed        for the pairs of Multi-Company lines.    -   3) The system removes any company total that exactly equals        0.00. There is no need for a multi-company entry for a total        that equals 0.00.    -   4) The system checks that each remaining total has accounts in        the Multi-Company matrix for the pair of companies that may be        needed. The pair is the main company of the check, and the        grouped company of the total applied payments.    -   5) If the Multi-Company matrix accounts do not yet exist, then        this is the first time the system is encountering a        Multi-Company entry between these two companies. Accordingly:        -   a) The system will make sure each of the companies involved            has a Multi-Company Natural Account Segment defined. (e.g.            represented by one of the axis on the Multi-Company matrix).        -   b) The system will create the pair of Multi-Company matrix            accounts using the Company Segment and the Special            Multi-Company Natural Segment for the other company and the            default Business Segments.    -   6) The system adds a pair of lines (marked as Is Multi Company)        to the applied check amounts using the Multi-Company matrix “Due        To/Due From” accounts. The main company of the check gets the        Credit (liability) because it owes money to the other company.        The other company gets the Debit because it is owed money from        the main company. The amount of the Debit or Credit is equal to        the total of the company applied amount for the other company.

The system writes the Undeposited Funds and Payment rows to the normalJournal Details of the sub system journal. These will be written to theGeneral Ledger when the sub system journal is posted.

The Cash General Ledger did not record the original invoice so it wasnot entered to the General Ledger. Accounts Receivable was notincreased, and Revenue was not recognized. Now that the Invoice has beenpaid, the Invoice Detail lines (usually revenue) can be recognized. Thecompany amounts paid can be proportionally applied to the invoice detaillines for the company for that Invoice.

The customer may have taken a discount, so the amount the customer paidcan be proportionally applied to the Invoice detail lines. The Discountmay be directly applied to the Journal.

In one embodiment, the system performs the following steps for eachpayment row comprising:

-   -   1) If the payment is not to the same Natural Account Segment        used in the main account of the Invoice (e.g. typically Accounts        Receivable), then write the payment directly to the cash journal        detail lines.    -   2) If the payment is to the same Natural Account Segment used in        the main account of the Invoice, then proportionally apply the        payment to the invoice detail lines.        -   a) Get the Company Segment for the payment.        -   b) Sum the invoice detail lines that use an account with the            same company as the payment. This will be less than all of            the invoice detail lines for a Multi-Company invoice.            Preferably, do not include the special Multi-Company rows            that were put in the Invoice when it was saved to keep track            of the Accounts Receivable for each company.        -   c) Proportionally apply the payment using the accounts of            the company specific invoice detail lines. Round each amount            to two decimal places (e.g. 1 cent).        -   d) Fix any rounding error by adding all of the lines just            entered to make sure they add to the payment amount. If            there is a rounding error (e.g. typically 1 cent), apply the            error to the detail line with the highest total, so as to            minimize the effect of the rounding error.        -   e) Write all detail lines to the Cash Journal Details for            later posting to the Cash General Ledger.

Multi-Company Credit Memos

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, a Credit Memo at 73(see FIG. 12) is issued when a client has been invoiced, and the clientwill not pay the invoice. The Credit Memo is used to bring down theoutstanding balance of existing Invoices. If the client was invoiced bymistake, either the wrong client, or a duplicate Invoice, then a CreditMemo may be applied to the Invoice. The Invoice originally increasedAccounts Receivable and Revenue Accounts. In the case of a mistake, theaccountant may want the Credit Memo at 73 to be a Contra-Revenue CreditMemo at 75, basically reversing the invoice detail accounts (usuallyrevenue). Another reason for a Credit Memo is bad debt. Maybe the clienthas gone out of business. In this case, Generally Accepted AccountingPrinciples (GAAP) dictates that the loss be taken as a bad debt expense,instead of reducing the previously recorded revenue.

The system of the present invention uniquely offers Bad Debt at 77, BadDebt using business segments at 79 and/or Contra-Revenue Credit Memos at75.

If Bad Debt is chosen as the type of Credit Memo, then the accountantcan chose to use a Bad Debt Expense Account Segment (for the NaturalCompany Segment) and the Company Segment with default Business Segments.The default Business Segments may be all 0's or all underscores forexample. The 0's or underscores mean no specified segment for thebusiness segment, such as for example, no office, no region or nodepartment. Balance Sheet Accounts typically use only the NaturalAccount Segment and the Company Segment. The system of the presentinvention preferably also allows the accountant to optionally specifythat the Business Segments are to be used with the Bad Debt expense fora Credit Memo. This way, the accountant can track Bad Debt down to theoffice, region, department and/or whatever other level may be desirable.If the Bad Debt GL Account for the specific company, using the specificbusiness segments does not exist, the system will automatically createthe account.

Multi-Company plays an important role regarding Credit Memos. TheInvoice may be a Multi-Company invoice, and the Invoice may have alreadybeen partially paid. For the Credit Memo, the current outstandingbalance for each of the companies on the Invoice is first determined andthen, proportionally applies the outstanding amount to the invoicedetail lines of the Invoice that is having a credit memo created againstit.

When paying an Invoice, the client will sometimes short pay by a verysmall amount, such as for example, by a dime, or a few cents. In thiscase, the system offers a Quick Credit Memo, where just checking a boxwill create the Credit Memo against the Invoice, and apply the CreditMemo to the invoice. Other systems typically have trouble handling shortpayments of only a small amount.

To Create a Credit Memo, the accountant chooses the Invoice that has anoutstanding balance and tells the system what type of credit memo tocreate. The types of Credit Memos are Bad Debt, Bad Debt with businesssegments, or Contra Revenue. The accountant also tells the system howmuch money the Credit Memo should be for. This amount can be betweennegative 1 cent and negative of the remaining outstanding amount of theInvoice. Maybe the customer was invoiced for $1000, and the customer hasalready paid $800. Further, maybe on negotiation, $75 was forgiven, andthe customer needs to only pay another 125. In this case, the CreditMemo would be for $75.

The system copies the information from the existing Invoice to the newCredit Memo. The GL Date of the new Credit Memo is defaulted to thecurrent date (e.g. today). The invoice number of the Credit Memo is theoriginal invoice number plus “−C” to denote a Credit Memo. The systemwrites a special associated field on the Credit Memo, so that theoriginal Invoice and the Credit Memo are associated for futureinvestigations.

The system gets the current outstanding balance for each company on theinvoice. If partial payments have been made to the Invoice, some of thepast payments may have fully paid one of the companies on the invoice.The system discards any company with a 0.00 balance.

The system creates new detail lines for the Credit Memo byproportionally applying each company balance to the detail lines of thatparticular company on the original Invoice. The system copies the GLaccounts and descriptions from the original Invoice to the detail linesof the Credit Memo. The system rounds each detail line to 1 cent, andthen fixes any rounding error by applying the rounding error to the linewith the greatest absolute value of money.

If the Credit Memo is a Bad Debt Credit Memo, or a Bad Debt withBusiness Segments Credit Memo, the system makes a pass through thedetail lines, changing the GL Account Natural Account Segment to the BadDebt GL Account Natural Segment. The system checks that the Bad DebtNatural Segment is defined for the Accounting system. If it is notdefined, the system notifies the accountant that he must set up a BadDebt Natural Account using the GL Setup administration screens. If theBusiness Segments are also being copied, then the system uses those sameBusiness Segments defined in the GL Accounts. If the GL Account does notexist with the exact Natural Segment, Company Segment, and BusinessSegments, then the system creates the new GL Account on the fly.

The system then makes a pass through the resulting detail lines andgroups them by GL Account and Description. If two lines have the same GLAccount and Description, then there is no need to have them listedseparately. This combining of detail lines preferably keeps the booksclean.

The accountant can also modify the Credit Memo after it is created.

When the Credit Memo is released, the system checks the company totalfor each company on the Credit Memo. Each company total is compared tothe corresponding company outstanding balance of the associated Invoice.If one of the companies is trying to Credit Memo more than theoutstanding company balance of the associated Invoice, the system willnot allow this and it will report an error to the user.

When releasing a Credit Memo, the system will create a new special “zerocheck”, and apply the Credit Memo and the associated invoice against thezero check. The check will be for 0.00 because the Credit Memo amountwill automatically exactly offset the Invoice amount.

Accounts Payable

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, Accounts Payable issubstantially similar to Accounts Receivable. The Debits and Credits arereversed. An Invoice on the AR side is similar to a Voucher on the APside. A received AR Check is similar to a printed AP Check. TheMulti-Company concepts work in a similar fashion or the same. AMulti-Company AP Voucher keeps each company's Accounts Payable inbalance by automatically writing pairs of Accounts Payable rows to theVoucher details when sub system journaling. When paying a check, thesystem proportionally applies the check amount (a check may not fullypay a voucher) to the detail lines of the Voucher. The systemautomatically uses the Multi-Company matrix to create pairs of “DueTo/Due From” entries because the check that is written comes from onecompany's bank account, but may pay voucher detail lines for a differentcompany. Debit Memos on the AP side are similar to Credit Memos on theAR side. The Debit Memos will not allow a forgiveness of a companyexpense for more than the outstanding balance of the company on thevoucher.

Examples of Accounts Payable

Referring to FIGS. 2 a, 2 b and 13, at least one embodiment of AccountsPayable 60 in accordance with the present invention is provided. Thevoucher is recorded at 86 within the multi-company accounting system bythe accountant entering financial data into the system. In one example,the accountant enters a total money amount for the voucher at 88 andinput voucher detail lines at 90. Each of the voucher detail lines 90have an account associated with one of the companies of themulti-company group and an amount of money. At least two of the voucherdetail lines are associated with two companies of the multi-companygroup.

The system automatically adds a pair of multi-company balancing lines at92 which are associated with the voucher for balancing money owed byeach of the two companies to define an outstanding balance for each ofthe two companies.

A payment is then created at 94 for paying the voucher. In particular,the accountant enters the amount of the payment into the accountingsystem to record the payment at 96. The system reduces the outstandingbalances for the companies including automatically adding a pair of “DueTo/Due From” entries using the Multi-Company matrix as discussed earlierto balance the money owed between the two companies.

When the payment is for the full amount of the current outstandingbalance of the voucher total money amount, the system automaticallyapplies a corresponding portion of the payment to each of the currentoutstanding balances of the two companies such that each of the currentoutstanding balances is zeroed and no rounding error occurs. When thepayment is for less than the current outstanding balance of the fullamount of the voucher total money amount, the system allows theaccountant to choose between proportionally applying the payment to thecurrent outstanding balances of the two companies or specifying thepayment to the current outstanding balances of the two companies.Proportionally applying the payment includes the system proportionallyapplying the payment to each of the current outstanding balances for thetwo companies by multiplying the payment by the current outstandingbalance for the corresponding company divided by the total currentoutstanding balance of the voucher and rounding the result to twodecimal places. Specifying the payment includes allowing the accountantto specify what amount if any of the payment is to be applied to each ofthe current outstanding balances of the two companies.

Proportionally applying the payment can further include applying anyrounding error resulting from totaling the rounded result to two decimalplaces relative to the total amount of the payment to the outstandingbalance of the company with the largest amount of the payment applied toits outstanding balance.

Specifying the payment can further include the system checking that theamount of the payment specified by the accountant does not exceed thecurrent outstanding balance of the corresponding distinct company.Moreover, specifying the payment can also include that if the amount ofthe payment specified by the accountant is negative, then the systemchecks that the negative amount of the payment does not remove more thana total of previously applied payments to that company for payment ofthe voucher.

In at least one embodiment, a debit memo at 97 is created when thecorresponding outstanding balance of one or more of the companies of thevoucher has not been paid in full. The system is preferably configuredto generate a plurality of types of debit memos for reducing the currentoutstanding balance for one or more of the companies including a baddebt debit memo at 99, a bad debt using defined business segments debitmemo at 101 and a contra-revenue debit memo at 103. Each of the bad debtdebit memo, the bad debt using defined business segments debit memo andthe contra-revenue debit memo have debit memo detail lines having asystem generated account. Each of the system generated accounts has theNatural Account Segment, the Company Segment, and one or more BusinessSegments. The system generated account for the bad debt debit memo has abad debt natural account segment defining the Natural Account Segment,the Company Segment corresponding to the Company Segment of one or moreof the input voucher detail lines associated with the currentoutstanding balance and default values for the one or more BusinessSegments. The bad debt with business segments debit memo has the baddebt natural account segment defining the Natural Account Segment, theCompany Segment and the one or more Business Segments correspondingrespectively to the Company Segment and the one or more BusinessSegments of one or more of the input voucher detail lines associatedwith the current outstanding balance. The contra-revenue debit memo hasnatural account segment, the company segment and the one or morebusiness segments corresponding respectively to the natural accountsegment, company segment and the one or more business segments of one ormore of the input voucher detail lines associated with the currentoutstanding balance.

In one example, creating the debit memo includes the system evaluatingeach of the input voucher detail lines associated with the currentoutstanding balance for generating the system generated accounts andwhen two or more of the system generated accounts have the same naturalaccount segment, the same company segment and the same one or morebusiness segments, the system automatically aggregating the two or moreof the system generated accounts into a single system generated accountline including summing the money amounts associated with the two or moresystem generated accounts.

In one example, when the debit memo is for the full amount of thecurrent outstanding balance of the voucher, the system automaticallyapplies a corresponding money portion of the debit memo to each of thecurrent outstanding balances of the one or more companies of the vouchersuch that each of the current outstanding balances is zeroed and norounding error occurs.

Alternatively, when the debit memo is for less than the currentoutstanding balance of the full amount of the voucher, system allows theinterface user to choose between proportionally applying thecorresponding money portion of the debit memo to the current outstandingbalances or specifying the corresponding money portion of the debit memoto the outstanding balances. Proportionally applying the correspondingmoney portion of the debit memo includes the system proportionallyapplying the corresponding money portion of the debit memo to each ofthe current outstanding balances for the one or more of the companies.Specifying the corresponding money portion of the debit memo includesallowing the accountant to specify what amount if any of thecorresponding money portion of the debit memo is to be applied to eachof the current outstanding balances of the one or more of the distinctcompanies. Preferably, proportionally applying the corresponding moneyportion of the debit memo includes applying any rounding error to thecurrent outstanding balance of the company with the largest money amountassociated with the debit memo applied to its current outstandingbalance.

Specifying the corresponding money portion of the debit memo preferablyincludes the system checking that the corresponding money portionspecified by the accountant does not exceed the current outstandingbalance of the corresponding company. If the corresponding money portionspecified by the accountant is negative, then the system can check thatthe negative amount does not exceed more than a total of previouslyapplied payments to that company of the voucher.

Referring to FIG. 14, the voucher has a main company and the system hasone or more rules 200 for creating the voucher that the accountantselects whether it applies or not. For example, a first rule 202 is fordesignating if a particular company of the multi-company group is aHolding Company and if not, then the system will not allow theaccountant to record the voucher with the particular company as the maincompany of the voucher where none of the input voucher detail lines areassociated with the particular company. The second rule 204 is fordesignating if the particular company can be the main company of thevoucher where the voucher contains any of the input voucher detail linesassociated with another of the companies. The third rule 206 is fordesignating if the particular company can be other than the main companyof the voucher where the voucher can contain any of the input voucherdetail lines associated with the particular company.

The System Security by Segments, Run As, and Grant or Deny Overview

With reference to FIGS. 7 a, 7 b and 15 in at least one embodiment ofthe present invention, the system has an extensive security model 210that allows administrators to set up what a person can do (securityprivileges 212), and what a person can see (security masks 214). Ifperson A can see everything that person B can see, then the systemallows person A to run the system as if he was person B.

The system may use two very powerful and unique ideas for controllingwhat a person can see using security account masks, and automaticallyallowing a person to run screens and reports as another person (Run As)if the other person can see a subset of what the logged in person cansee.

Security Roles and Employees

Preferably, all users of the system can be assigned to as many securityroles 216 as needed. The administrator sets up roles to either assign ordeny security privileges or security masks. For example, anadministrator may set up a security role for Junior Accountants orothers with reduced security privileges to be able to enter draftvouchers, but not release vouchers into the General Ledger. Another rolemay be set up for Senior Accountants or others with enhanced securityprivileges to be able to release vouchers. A role may be set up to runfinancial reports for a specific business segment, such as office orregion or department. The administrator would assign the businesssegment leader to that role.

Referring also to FIG. 19 is an example of a screen shot (screen shot #2at 520) of a Security Role Screen.

Security Roles and Privileges

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, each Security Rolecan have privileges specifically assigned or denied. This controls whatthat role can do at 218. Not every role must have every privilegeassigned or denied.

For example, there may be a Security Role called “A/P accountant”. ThisSecurity Role would have all of the Accounts Payable privileges grantedto it.

In one illustrative example, a new AP clerk is hired, and theadministrator does not want to give that person the ability to void orunvoid a check. The administrator could make a new role, just grantingthe AP privileges needed, or the administrator could add a new rolecalled “A/P Clerk” just denying the Void and UnVoid privileges. Theadministrator could assign both the NP accountant and the NP Clerk rolesto the new employee. The employee would then be able to do allactivities in Accounts Payable, but not be able to Void or UnVoid acheck.

In one example, to determine what an employee can do, the system looksat every role the employee is a member of comprising the steps of:

-   -   1) If any role contains a privilege that is specifically denied,        then the employee is denied that privilege.    -   2) If the privilege is not denied, if any role specifically        grants the privilege, the employee is granted the privilege.    -   3) If the privilege is not listed in any role for this employee,        then grant or deny is based on the default for that privilege.

In one example the list of privileges includes AP-AP Check—Change CheckNumber, AP-AP Check—Delete, AP-AP Check—Print, AP-AP Check—UnVoid, AP-APCheck—Void, AP-Pay Vouchers, AP-Positive Pay All Checks, AP-Positive PayCreate, AP-Release Vouchers, AP-UnJournal Vouchers, AP-UnReleaseVouchers, AP-Void Release Voucher, AR-AR Check—Delete, AR-AR Check—Edit,AR-AR Check—NSF, AR-AR Check—UnNSF, AR-Release Deposits, AR-ReleaseInvoices, AR-Soccer Application (Temp), AR-UnJournal Deposits,AR-Unjournal Invoices, AR-UnRelease Deposits, AR-UnRelease Invoices,AR-UnVoid a Deposit, AR-Void a Deposit, AR-Void Voucher Release,GL-Account Segments Manage, GL-Bank Statement, GL-Bank StatementUn-Reconcile, GL-Change Accounts on Posted items, GL-Create Accounts,GL-Custom Fields, GL-Debugging, GL-Enable Performance Monitoring,GL-Error Search, GL-External Segment Mapping, GL-GL Setup, GL-NaturalAccount Details, GL-Open/Close Periods, GL-Reports Admin, GL-SecuritySetup, GL-See Deactivated Accounts, GL-Select Max Rows For GL Search,GL-Small Lists, Journals-Delete Journals, Journals-Payroll—Import,Journals-Post Journals, Journals-Release Journals, Journals-Remove fromSub System, Journals-Sub System Journal, Journals-UnPost Journals, andJournals-UnRelease Journals. Other privileges may be added orsubstituted as required by particular embodiments. This list isexemplary only and is not intended to be exclusive or exhaustive.

Security Roles and Security Segment Masks

In at least one embodiment, each Security Role can also be assignedSecurity Masks at 214. A Security Mask defines a scope of GL Accounts.Every dollar in an accounting system is assigned to a General LedgerAccount. Each General Ledger Account is made up of a Natural AccountSegment. The Natural Account Segment defines the type of Account—Asset,Liability, Owner Equity, Revenue, or Expense. It also defines thespecific type of account such as for example a Bank asset, or Equipmentasset, or payroll expense, or services revenue. The system is aMulti-Company financial or accounting system, and defines a CompanySegment or company balancing segment. This is the segment that definesthe company, and can generate a balance sheet. In one embodiment, theadministrator sets up the structure of the General Ledger Accounts bydefining exactly what Business Segments will be used for the subaccount. For example, the account structure may define that the Region,Office, Department, and Line of Business are to be used to track Revenueand Expenses. This means that each GL Account would be made up ofexactly one Natural Account Segment, Company Segment, Region Segment,Office Segment, Department Segment, and Line of Business Segment.

Each Security Role can have as many Segment Masks as needed. Each maskcan either grant or deny access to a series of accounts.

Existing Systems Security

The accounting systems that exist all have a user name and password toaccess the system. Once a person is authenticated (by having the correctpassword), that person can usually see all accounts in the system. Somemore advanced systems that claim to be Multi-Company further limit theuser to seeing accounts from one company. This technique is not reallyadequate for business to function. Because of this, management at thefirm is not granted access to the accounting system. Business managers,such as office or region managers, or line of business managers, such asthe vice president (“VP”) of marketing/sales for a line of business suchas insurance, or wholesale, or mortgages or whatever the firm sells arenot given direct access to the accounting system. This limits access tosensitive or confidential information only to those having the necessarysecurity privileges. Otherwise, for example, if one office manager hadunlimited access to the system, he could run financial reports for otheroffices, or see sensitive financial data such as payroll information.These systems are typified by the Accounting Department releasing therelevant financials one time per month, to the business managers.

System Financial Security

In at least one embodiment in accordance with the present invention, thesystem allows the accounting administrators to set up security masks. Asecurity mask may specify for example:

“All Accounts that have office “SFD” in the GL Account

Or

“All Accounts that have “Insurance” as the Line of Business

Each segment can be masked individually. The masks are assembled andassigned to Security Roles. Each Role can have the mask either grant ordeny access at 220. For example, the administrator may give the head ofInsurance Sales a mask that includes all accounts having Insurance asthe Line of Business. The administrator may then create a mask thatspecifies all accounts that are related to payroll expense. If theadministrator creates a roll where he grants the Insurance mask anddenies the payroll mask, and assigns the head of Insurance Sales to thatrole, then that person can see everything related to Insurance, but hecannot see the individual details of payroll. The system will providethat the employee would have been able to see all of the Insurancedetails, except for the payroll details relating to insurance. In thiscase, the system will show the aggregate payroll squashed down to asingle “security” line. This way the employee can see a true Profit andLoss for his line of business, but not see the details of the payrolldata.

Defining Security Masks

As mentioned above, each security mask may be made up of exactly one ofeach type of segment. Wildcards can also be used, (e.g. the characterstring ****), to indicate that all of that type of segment is allowed topass the security mask. The Natural Account Segment may also have aspecial type of mask at the type of account, Assets, Liabilities, OwnerEquity, Revenue, and Expense.

Referring also to FIG. 20 is an example of a screen shot (screen shot #3at 530) showing a Security Mask definition for a company. As shown, themask that would scope all GL Accounts that are for the HFS company, andin the CLE office.

Referring also to FIG. 21 is an example of a screen shot (screen shot #4at 540) showing the options for a Natural Segment mask. Note the 5special types of Natural Segment masks starting with <All near the topof the list. The rest of the Natural Segment options are a typical chartof accounts for a company. The screen shot is only showing the first fewAsset Natural Account Segments, but all of the Natural Account Segmentsare in the list.

An Example of How the System Uses Security Masks

The system has extensive search screens allowing the user to search forentries in the accounting system. A user can search for Invoices,Vouchers, AP Checks, Invoices, AR Checks, AR Check Deposits, Clients,Vendors, Journals and/or etc. Each time a user tries to search for anentry, the system may limit the user to seeing the entry if that entryhas anything to do with the user. This means when searching, the exactsame criteria will yield different results based on who the user is thatis doing the search. By default, the user is the person logged in, butthe logged in user can choose to Run As someone else, if the otherperson has a sub set of accounts that he can see. The Run As feature isdescribed in further detail below.

For example, assume a Search was made for Vouchers with a value greaterthan $10,000, with a GL Date in the 1^(st) quarter of 2008. The searchscreen before the search may look like screen shot #5 at 550 shown inFIG. 22.

In this example, if the head person of Insurance Sales is running thesearch, then the system will return Vouchers where the total amount ofthe Voucher is >10,000 and the GL Date is in the 1^(st) quarter of 2008,and the Voucher has at least detail one line using an account that hasInsurance as the line of business.

If the SFD office manager ran the search, that person would see Vouchersthat had an amount >10,000, and the GL Date was in the 1^(st) quarter of2008, and the Voucher had at least one detail line using the SFD office.

This type of algorithm is used throughout the system to preferably makesure that the person only sees items relevant to them.

In the example above, if the end user does the search, and then drillsinto the data, if the Voucher has other detail lines that the end usercannot see, either because they are specifically denied, or they are notgranted to him, then the system will aggregate those lines down to asingle security line per company. This way, the end user still sees thewhole Voucher Amount, but not the sensitive detail information.

Security Details of an Embodiment of the System

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, when a user logsinto the system, the system goes through all Roles that the user is amember of. For each Role that the user is a member of, the system loopsthrough all of the “deny” Security Masks for that role. The systemrecords all of the accounts that are denied access by the mask. For eachRole that the user is a member of, the system loops through all of the“grant” Security Masks for that role. The system grants access to theaccounts that satisfy the mask if they were not previously denied above.

Each time a search is made in the system, the system may only includeentries where at least one account used in the entry is available to theend user. When opening an item (drilling), the system looks at eachdetail line. If the account of the detail line is not granted to theuser, then the system aggregates that detail line by company into asecurity detail line. This preferably blocks the details from the enduser. When the end user is entering new items, such as new Vouchers orInvoices, the system only shows the end user accounts that user can see.This preferably prevents the head of an office from entering a voucherexpense for a different office.

RunAs Security of the System

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, when logging in,the system identifies all other users in the system that are in securityroles such that the accounts they can see are a proper sub-set of theaccounts the person logging in can see. For example, a Regional Managershould be able to see all of the accounts of the offices in his region.The individual office managers should have security that is a sub set ofthe Regional manager. This means the system will allow the RegionalManager to Run As the office manager. This way, when the RegionalManager calls the Office Manager to discuss financial activity, the twopeople can both view identical reports and screens. It also allows anadministrator to test the security, to see what a person can see. Whenrunning as someone else, the system even limits what accounts can beentered, based on the other person's security masks. When running assomeone else, the system still stores the original person as the creatoror editor of an item, so the audit trail is still accurate.

System Financial Reporting Overview

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 16 in at least one embodiment, the systemuses a very unique, and novel process for Financial Reporting at 230.This new process may be faster, more robust, easier to administer, moreefficient use of network bandwidth, and more powerful than existingreporting methodologies. Financial Reporting means generating an IncomeStatement at 232 and/or Balance Sheet 234 from the General Ledger 56.

The Need for Financial Reporting

Companies often need to report Income Statements or Balance Sheets for avariety of reasons. Financial reports are used for Audits, for managingthe firm at a global level, and for managing the firm at a smallerlevel, such as for example, a Region, Office, Department, or Line ofBusiness (e.g. Business Segment). Although the bottom line results (netincome) are the same, the formatting and grouping of the data (what rowsare shown) are different for each reporting need.

Existing Accounting System Problems

Existing systems can create custom formats for reporting. The problem isin how they go about doing it. In existing systems, each line of thereport is defined by a list of Natural Account Segments, or a range ofNatural Account Segments. Total Lines are defined by specifying whichdetail lines should be totaled. This process creates a number ofproblems, such as for example, the following:

-   -   When new Accounts are added, if they are not specified in the        report definition (not in a range of Natural Account Segments),        then the Accounting activity (GL Activity) for those accounts        will not be on the report.    -   If a new detail row is added, and the administrator forgets to        update the summary row definition, then the sum will not add to        the detail rows above.

Existing systems can report on Sub Account Detail, but only if the subaccount is defined in the report definition. For example, if you have aRegion such as Lower Michigan, and several offices, such as Southfield,Ann Arbor, and Detroit, you must specify each line on the report. If youlater open an office in another city in the Lower Michigan Region, suchas Bloomfield, the report will not pick up the new data until theadministrator updates the report definition.

Existing systems also either do not drill to detail, or if they drill,they do it inefficiently, and only partially. Some existing systems donot drill at all. You can see the results on the report, but you cannotdrill to find out where the information came from.

Some existing systems take a data feed from the General Ledger of theAccounting system. These systems then get individual report line data asseparate statements as defined in the report definition above. Theyreturn all of the data to the report writer and the report writer sumsthe rows and displays the one row that was asked for. When the userdrills on that row, the report writer already has the data and expandsthe row to show the GL Detail. This presents at least two distinctproblems:

-   -   Many rows are returned from the server eating up network        bandwidth. A General Ledger may have millions of rows of        information. One line of the report may be the result of        thousands of rows of information. It is very inefficient to        return these rows, and then have the report writer aggregate the        information into a single row. Also the user will not drill to        every row on the report, so the server is returning rows that        will never be looked at.    -   The user may want to drill beyond the General Ledger Detail. If        the row from the GL came from an AR Check, the user may want to        drill to the AR check but will not be able to.

It is believed that no existing system has the concept of security forsome of the data. A company may have an executive that can see theincome statement for a line of business, but not be allowed to see thesensitive payroll detail.

An accountant may want an income line above the bottom line. Forexample, the accountant may want “income before extraordinary expense”,and then list the expense, then the net income. The problem is that theaccountant may not want to print the “income before extraordinaryexpense” if there was no extraordinary expense. Existing systems cannotprint special lines based on the existence of data in other lines.

Many financial reporting systems can only report on information in onecompany or on all companies at once. If an Accounting system is set upwith 10 companies, the system cannot report on a selection of companies.

Existing systems cannot report on any combination of business segments.For example, a Line of Business manager cannot report on his line ofbusiness as generated from a small selection of offices.

Financial Reporting Process via the System

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the system cancreate multiple formats for Financial Statements. Preferably, the systemenables the reports to be faster, more robust to changes, easier toadminister, more efficient use of network bandwidth, and more powerfulthan existing systems and methods.

In one example, the system uses the following steps comprising:

-   -   1) Recognizes if an account is not defined in a report        definition. The system will add the account in an appropriate        place on the report. This keeps the financial reports valid.    -   2) Automatically adds summary lines guaranteeing accuracy.    -   3) The system may add sub detail lines at any level, without        specifying the segments. For example, an accountant may want to        break out the telephone expense by office. The accountant would        want all of the offices to be included, even if that office did        not exist when the report was created. The accountant may also        want to show all offices, even if they had no telephone expense,        or he may want to show only offices with telephone expenses        incurred.    -   4) The system does the report line aggregates at the server and        only returns what information is necessary to print the report.        No extra rows of data are returned, preserving network        bandwidth. Each row is tagged with information that can be used        to drill to the next level of detail.    -   5) When drilling to the General Ledger, a new round trip request        is made to the server to get the information. The system        includes enough information with each line on the report to get        the detail information in these drill queries.    -   6) The system can drill to any level of detail. For example, the        system can drill from the income statement to the General        Ledger, and then drill from the General Ledger to the AP        Voucher, then drill from the AP Voucher to the check that paid        the Voucher, and then drill to an image of the check.    -   7) The system can conditionally print special income, or revenue        to this point, or expense to this point based on the existence        of data that would cause the line to have meaningful        information. The system can suppress a special line if it would        not be needed.    -   8) The system can aggregate sensitive information, such as        payroll information, into Security lines. The user still sees a        complete Profit and Loss (P&L), but cannot see or drill to        secured information.    -   9) The system can report on any Business Segment. This means a        Regional Manager or a Line of Business Manager can report on all        of their business, even if their business cuts across companies.    -   10) The system can generate a report on any combination of        Business Segments. For example, any combination of the way money        is tracked can be entered into the criteria of the report. A        Line of Business Manager can run a report on his activity across        a selection of offices, or any other combination thereof.    -   11) The system can produce a simple income statement just based        on the Natural Account Segment setup. In this case no grouping        is needed.

An Embodiment of the System's Financial Reporting Setup TechnicalDetails

A report setup specifies the Natural Accounts for each report line at236. The system uses a novel way of grouping the lines. Instead ofmaking the end user specify what lines will be added together to makesummary lines, the system uses an intuitive drag and drop tree view togroup the lines at 238. Each folder 240 of the tree view specifies alevel of grouping. The grouping can be arbitrarily deep, just like thefolders in a computer for storing files. Each level can optionally put aheading at 242 or footer at 244 with a sub total. Root level folders atcan also have Income, or Revenue or Expense totals before or after. Thetotals can be told to not print if the contents of the folder (e.g.lines of accounting activity) are empty when the report is run. Providedbelow are some examples for illustrating the foregoing description.

Assigning Natural Accounts to a report lines, the tooltip (e.g. box)shows the meaning of the natural account numbers when the mouse hoversover the accounts. Each line here will become a report line in the treeview shown in FIG. 23 as screen shot #6 at 560.

Referring to FIG. 24 is a screen shot (screen shot #7 at 570)illustrates an example of the novel use of a tree view to group thereport lines. Further details will be described of the Costs folder andthe Gain/Loss on Disposal of Sub in the next 2 screen shots.

Each folder is a grouping level. The groups can have optional headersand summary footers.

Referring to FIG. 25 is a screen shot (screen shot #8 at 580) afterright clicking the Costs folder and selecting Properties.

The properties dialog allows optional Income Sub Totals above or below,and optional Headers and Footers. The Footer will automatically sum thedetails within the folder. The system will automatically use the HeaderText for the caption above and below, if the header or footer isvisible, and the caption is not overridden by the caption options shown.

Referring to FIG. 26 is a screen shot #9 at 590, the Income Taxesfolder, which is illustrated in screen shot #6 of FIG. 23, is theGain/Loss on Disposal of Sub. This is a special line that the personusing the report may not want to see if there was no Disposal of a subcompany during the time frame. If there was a special disposal, the userof the report would want to see Net Income from Operations before thisspecial event. The system preferably allows all of these options. Hereis screen shot (screen shot #9 at 590) of the properties of the linelabeled “Gain/Loss on Disposal of Sub”.

It is apparent that if there is no activity (no sub company wasdisposed), the system would not bring the Income Subtotal “Net Incomefrom Operations” above. The line would not be needed. Also, although notused here, it does show that each report line can be automaticallybroken down by 2 additional levels. The levels are the Sub Group 1 andSub Group 2 shown in screen shot #9 at 590. For example, if this was aTelephone expense, the accountant may want Sub Group 1 to be Region andSub Group 2 to be office. The report would automatically give drillablenumbers for each office within each region.

An Embodiment of the System's Financial Reporting Income StatementCriteria Specification

Technical details regarding the Income Statement in accordance with atleast one embodiment of the present invention are provided. Security isused to limit what an end user can see. If a user can only see oneRegion, or can only see a set of Offices, then he will only be presentedwith those choices for the report criteria.

Referring to FIG. 27 is an example of the Income Statement ReportCriteria screen (screen shot #10 at 600).

Each Business Segment can have any number of segments selected for thereport. The system will figure out the accounting activity thatsatisfies the selections made by the user. In this example, the segmentsdefined for use by the company are: Natural Account, Company, Category,Business Unit, Region, Office, Department, and Event. This means thateach dollar that flows through the company can be tracked by thesesegments. The screen shot (screen shot #10 at 600) is showing the firstfew Revenue Accounts for the Natural Account Segment. Each tab has alist of available options. The end user makes a selection by moving thesegments to the right “Selected” tab.

In one example, an income statement can have up to 5 columns of data forexample, representing different time periods, or additions orsubtractions of two previous columns. The additions or subtractions cancombine or eliminate different General Ledger entries.

An Embodiment of the System's Report Processing Technical Details

When the end user wants to see the Income Statement by pressing RunReport, the system in at least one embodiment processes the report usingthe following process comprising:

-   -   This procedure works on either:        -   The Natural Income Statement (Revenue and Expense by Natural            SegmentID), Or        -   On a custom Income Statement using the Tree View described            above. ReportGroupBys are the lines in the Tree View            described above. These group the Natural Account Segments            into lines on the report (Detail Level 0).

ReportCategories (The folders of the tree view) form the hierarchy ofthe report Detail Level (−1, −2, −3 . . . ).

A ReportGroupBy can also be broken down to two further levels of detail(Detail Level 1 and 2) by some Segment Definition such as Region,Office, Event, and/or etc. These are the Sub Group 1 and Sub Group 2mentioned above with the lines in the tree view.

The process comprises first getting the Raw Data for each column (timeperiod) into 5 separate temporary tables. A Full Outer Join among thefive tables creates another level of Raw Data with the five columnscombined. A Full Outer Join means that if some account was used in onecolumn (one time period) and it was not used in another column (anothertime period), the system will put place holders in the column that didnot have the activity, so all of the activity will line up when readingacross the report.

The Raw Data also uses Segment Mask Security to aggregate rows to asingle security row, or a security row per natural segment based on theemployee run as for the report. This means if the person running thereport, or more specifically, the person chosen as the Run As person,does not have security to see sensitive data, such as payroll details,the system will aggregate the data into a single security line, and notallow drilling to the detail for that line.

After the Raw Data (e.g. report lines), and any detail level 1 or 2 isdone, then applying the Report Categories is started. The ReportCategories are the grouping headers and sub total footers. These wererepresented by the folders in the report definition tree view. TheReport Categories are nested with a header and a footer. The FinalPosition is based on the entire path to an item.

For example, if a top level Report Category(ParentReportCategoryID=null) is Occupancy Costs, and its position is60000, it may contain other Report Categories such as Rent andUtilities. If Rent is position 10 and Utilities is position 20 and if aReportGroupBy Line is Electric with a position of 15 and aReportCategory parent of Utilities, the FinalPosition of Electric wouldbe A60000B20C15.

Basically, positions are relevant at the level of siblings. In the caseabove, both Rent and Utilities would have a Detail Level of −1 andOccupancyCosts would have a Detail Level of −2. Electric, theReportGroupBy would have a Detail Level of 0, as all Report Group Byrows have.

In at least one embodiment, the stored procedure processing the reportdoes the following activities comprising:

-   -   1) Verify the parameters of the report including:        -   a) Will not allow any SQL Injection or invalid selections,            such as for example, a date range where the “From” date is            later than the “To” date.    -   2) Get the Accounts that will be used in the report based on        user selection including:        -   a) The report will get the accounts to use based on the            selected segments; and        -   b) based on the security of the Run As person. A person            cannot see more than the security segment masks allow.    -   3) Fill in the Header Fields including:        -   a) The report will have titles based on user selection. For            example, each column will show its date range. The report            will show what segments were selected, who ran the report,            and/or etc.    -   4) Get the Raw Data for the five columns by @StartDate @EndDate        @Normal0Cash1 @GLStandardBudgetTypeID including:        -   a) Each column specifies the Start and End Date.        -   b) Specifies if the column should be the normal Accrual or            Cash General Ledger.        -   c) Specifies which General Ledger to use. The default GL is            the most used, but a column may use a Budget or Estimate            General Ledger.    -   5) Create RawResults by Full Outer Join of RawData. This creates        one row per GL Account.    -   6) Fill in the companies for the header of the report. The        companies may use a Company Group, such as Consolidated Group.        -   a) The system (also referred to as “HantzGelerman”) is a            Multi-Company system. A typical group of companies may have            many individual accounting companies. If so, the            administrators may want to have named bundles of companies.            Some example would be Manufacturing Consolidation, which            could have 5 manufacturing companies. If the end user chose            those 5 companies, instead of listing them at the top of the            report, “Manufacturing Consolidation” could just be listed.    -   7) Create temporary #Results table with Data for (#Accounts)        accounts the end user can see, and SecurityLine aggregates by        Natural Account Segment for accounts that the end user cannot        see the details of based on security. This may be grouped        further later, if the Run As user cannot see Natural Segments        for Accounts that are denied. Results may only include Revenue        and Expense Accounts, even if RGB specifies a Balance Sheet        Account to be used as a note on the report.    -   8) Create #ResultsReturned, including:        -   a) Create the Detail Level 0 Rows for Report lines            (ReportGroupBys). This is the first time that the Natural            Account is not specified for data on the row. The reason is            that there is now 1 row per ReportGroupBy Row. The            ReportGroupByRows were defined in the report setup to be a            list of Natural Accounts Segments, so we are starting to            group the data into the custom rows defined by the report            format the end user desires.    -   9) For the simple Income Statement by Natural Accounts skip to        step 12. Do steps 10 and 11 for the custom report formats        defined by the tree view in the report administration screens.    -   10) Create the Detail Level 1 and Detail Level 2 rows for        further Detail breakdown of Report Group By rows by any Business        Segment Definition.        -   a) This is the Sub Group 1 and Sub Group 2 described in the            properties window of a line on the tree view.    -   11) Get the Accounts with Natural Account Segments not defined        by this Report (no rows in        ReportGroupBys_GLAccountNaturalSegments for this report).        -   a) This is the part that picks up new accounts not specified            in the report format. The new accounts will still be put on            the report making the data valid.    -   12) Create Footer Rows as needed for the Detail Level 1 and 2        Segment Definition breakdown of the Report Group By rows. First        create the Detail Level 0 footers by transferring the numbers        from the header to the new inserted footer.    -   13) Report Categories including:        -   a) Add in the headers and summary footers as specified by            the folders of the report tree view definition.    -   14) Insert the Total Line Placeholders before doing the Final        Position.        -   a) This is the special Income or Expense or Revenue lines,            such as Income before sale of a subsidiary.    -   15) Calculate the FinalPosition using the Category Hierarchy.        -   a) The category hierarchy is the relative position of            folders and Report Group by lines as specified in the report            tree view definition.    -   16) Indentation including:        -   a) Add a small indentation to each folder level of the            report. Same for Sub Group 1 and Sub Group 2.    -   17) Calculate the Revenue and Expense totals for the report.    -   18) Insert Income Sub totals.    -   19) Insert total lines.    -   20) Set the percents.        -   a) The report can set percents as percent changes from            previous periods, or as percent of revenue.    -   21) Clean up and return results.

An Embodiment of the System's Account Balance Overview

The accounting systems need a way of generating an account balance foreach GL Account. Some systems can only generate a balance for anarbitrary period, usually 1 month. Many systems can generate a balancefor any day. The systems that can only generate the balance for a monthare typically older systems.

One problem is that the balance for an account is not stored in adatabase table that stores the account information. This is because thebalance must be calculated for any day. The balance of an account isactually the summation of all activity from the beginning of the systemto the end of the day requested. A typical General Ledger will havemillions of rows in it. It would be very inefficient to add up everytransaction from the beginning of time to the day requested each time abalance is required.

Balance Sheet Accounts such as Assets, Liabilities, and Owner Equity(excluding Current Earnings and Retained Earnings) are logicallycalculated by adding every transaction from the beginning of time.Current and Retained Earnings involve adding up to the total of allRevenue Accounts−all Expense Accounts for all activity from thebeginning of time (e.g. beginning of the company) to the day requested.Retained Earnings is the part of the Income (Revenue−Expense) that wascalculated from the beginning of time to the most recent year end.Current Earnings is the part of Income that was realized from the daterequested backwards to the most recent year beginning date.

Revenue and Expense Account balances should be reset to 0 when a yearcloses. This is commonly referred to as closing a year. This meansIncome starts at 0 at the beginning of a new fiscal year.

Existing Systems Use Different Techniques to Generate a Balance

Some systems store the balance at the end of each accounting period. Aperiod is usually 1 month. If a balance is needed on the 3^(rd) of amonth, the system gets the ending balance at the end of the previousmonth, and adds activity for the 1^(st) 3 days of the current month.

This may be efficient, but it is not very robust. If something happensthat causes the period ending balances to get out of balance, it wouldbe difficult to detect. For example, if an accountant entered a journalentry with a GL Date 2 years in the past, to correct a problem, everymonth ending date from that time forward would have to be adjusted. Oncedetected, the system could recover by recalculating the period endingbalances for each account for every period for all time. Basically,storing the month end balances is a violation of database theory becauseit is storing a value that can be calculated from other values in thedatabase.

Some other systems store a monthly activity summation. Then, if thebalance of 3^(rd) day of the current month is needed, the system readsthe monthly activity for all months from the beginning of time to thelast ending month before the date needed, and then it adds the activityfor the 3 days of the month. This is also efficient, as there are atmost 12 numbers to read for an account per year. Even if the system were50 years old that would still only be 600 reads for the monthlyactivity, plus the number of days in the month needed. Although this isefficient, it is also susceptible to problems. This may be relativelymore robust than the previous method, as each month has just its ownactivity, so if a change were made in the past, only one monthlyactivity number must be adjusted. However, the system can still get outof balance, and the out of balance condition may be difficult to detect.This approach also violates database theory, as activity sums are storedfrom data that could otherwise be calculated by other data in thesystem. Also, this method is slightly less efficient than the firstmethod, because it must add up the monthly activity as opposed to justreading the last month balance.

Existing Systems Current Earnings

Existing Systems write the sum of Revenue−Expense to Current Earningsfor each entry into the General Ledger. This is another area thatviolates database normalization. The Current Earnings can be calculatedfrom the sum of Revenue−Expense. The issue is calculating CurrentEarnings efficiently.

Existing Systems Closing a Year

Closing a year means moving all of the year's revenue and expense toRetained Earnings. The Revenue and Expense accounts should start at 0.00for the fiscal year. Most systems do this by writing year end closingentries to the General Ledger for the Income Statement (Revenue andExpense) accounts. They also move Current Earnings to Retained Earningsat year end.

An Embodiment of the System's Account Balance Process

In at least one embodiment in accordance with the present invention, thesystem does not redundantly store information in monthly period tables.This means the system does not violate database normalization rules, andthe system does not get out of balance.

The system uses a virtual close for yearend close. This means that theaccountant does not need to do a year end closing entry. Nothingspecific is written to the database to close out the balances of Revenueand Expense accounts and to move Current Earnings to Retained Earnings.

Some of the main issues addressed by this at least one embodiment of thepresent invention are to (1) have fast efficient processing and (2) notviolate any database normalization rules, so the system does not get outof balance.

In one example, the system and method of accounting does this by usingthe capability of the SQL database engine, available on the SQL Server2000 for example, and using the new and novel approach described below.The description includes the Indexed Views (e.g Materialized Views) andthe algorithm used to get the account balance.

The System Using Indexed Views

With reference to FIG. 16 in at least one embodiment of the presentinvention, the system uses an Indexed View to generate an accountbalance at 250. An Indexed View (or Materialized View) is a not an indexand it is not a view, but is rather instructions to the database serverto maintain summary information in tables (e.g. materialized summations)maintained completely by the server by Declarative Data DefinitionLanguage. Preferably, no code or SQL is written when manipulating thedata, when inserting, updating or deleting data. The serverautomatically maintains the values that are declared to be maintained.When reading the Indexed View at 250 to generate the account balance at254, the server will already have the answer ready. The server does notneed to calculate the answer at the moment of the read, as it would haveto for a regular View. It does take server processing to maintain anIndexed View, so incorrect use of an Indexed View can have negativeconsequences on system performance. The Indexed View definitions arepreferably easy for the server to maintain in order to not make new Datainsertions and changes and deletes slow.

The system can store information for accounts on an Accrual or Cashbasis. It can also store information for multiple General Ledgers, suchas the default, and budget and estimate General Ledgers.

In one embodiment, the system uses a total of four Indexed Views plus abalance function defined below to get the Account Balance of any accountfor any day. For example, the four indexed views are two for Cash andtwo for Accrual (or Normal) Accounting. The only difference between thetwo for Cash and two for Accrual Accounting is the limit of Cash orNormal for the Indexed Views.

For the Normal Accrual Indexed Views, the two Indexed Views are ofyearly and daily activity. The yearly activity Indexed View calculatesthe yearly activity for the normal General Ledger for each calendaryear. Fiscal years ending on dates other than December 31 will stillwork, but this view will not change. In one example, the code definitionof the yearly activity indexed view is as follows:

CREATE VIEW [dbo].[IV_GLNormal_AccountYearlyActivity] WITH SCHEMABINDING  AS SELECT GL.GLAccountID , YEAR(GL.GLDate) as YearOfGLDate ,J.GLStandardBudgetTypeID , SUM(GL.Debit-GL.Credit) as SumOfDebitCredit ,COUNT_BIG(*) as CountBig FROM dbo.GLGeneralLedger GL INNER JOINdbo.GLJournals J ON GL.GLJournalID = J.GLJournalID WHERE GL.IsGLNormal =1 GROUP BY GL.GLAccountID, YEAR(GLDate), J.GLStandardBudgetTypeID CREATE   UNIQUE    CLUSTERED    INDEX[IV_GLNormal_AccountYearlyActivity_GLAccountID_GLDate_GLStandardBudgetTypeID]ON [dbo].[IV_GLNormal_AccountYearlyActivity] (   [GLAccountID] ASC,  [YearOfGLDate] ASC,   [GLStandardBudgetTypeID] ASC )

As can be seen in the code definition, the Indexed View sums theDebit-Credit activity and groups it by Account, by Year, and by theGeneral Ledger Type (Normal, Budget, Estimate etc. . . . ). This meansthat the database server will declaratively maintain the sum of yearlyactivity for each account. This way the system does not get out ofbalance. The data is automatically maintained at all times, and it doesnot have to be recalculated each time as a normal view would be.

The “CREATE UNIQUE CLUSTERED INDEX . . . ” and the “SCHEMABINDING”syntax are used to make the server maintain the information at alltimes.

The other Indexed View for Normal Accrual is for daily activity. In oneexample, it has a code defined as:

CREATE VIEW [dbo].[IV_GLNormal_AccountDailyActivity] WITH SCHEMABINDING  AS SELECT GL.GLAccountID, GL.GLDate, J.GLStandardBudgetTypeID,SUM(GL.Debit-GL.Credit) as SumOfDebitCredit ,SUM(GL.Debit) asSumOfDebit ,SUM(GL.Credit) as SumOfCredit ,COUNT_BIG(*) as CountBig FROMdbo.GLGeneralLedger GL INNER JOIN dbo.GLJournals J ON GL.GLJournalID =J.GLJournalID WHERE GL.IsGLNormal = 1 GROUP BY GL.GLAccountID,GL.GLDate, J.GLStandardBudgetTypeID CREATE    UNIQUE    CLUSTERED   INDEX[IV_GLNormal_AccountDailyActivity_GLAccountID_GLDate_GLStandardBudgetTypeID]ON [dbo].[IV_GLNormal_AccountDailyActivity] (   [GLAccountID] ASC,  [GLDate] ASC,   [GLStandardBudgetTypeID] ASC )

The only difference in the Indexed View for Normal Accrual for dailyactivity versus for yearly activity is that the daily activity isgrouped by GLDate instead of by YEAR of GLDate.

An Embodiment of the System's Account Balance Algorithm

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the system has analgorithm that uses the Indexed Views above to calculate the accountbalance. Basically, if a balance is needed for Feb. 15, 2008, thealgorithm will use the Yearly Indexed View to calculate the sum ofactivity for all years for the account from the beginning of time toDec. 31, 2007. It will then add the daily activity from Jan. 1 to Feb.15, 2008. This is extremely efficient. Even if the system were 50 yearsold, the database would just have to read 50 values for the past years,then add in whatever days had activity for the account (not every daywill have activity (e.g. Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays such asChristmas).

In at least one embodiment in accordance with the present invention, thealgorithm is very robust and there is no violation of database theory.That is, no data is stored that can be calculated.

An example of the algorithm is described below in code form:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fnGLAccountBalance] (   -- Add the parameters forthe function here   @GLAccountID int   ,@GLDate datetime  ,@Normal0Cash1 bit   ,@GLStandardBudgetTypeID int  ,@Normal0StartOfDay1 bit   ,@CurrentEarningsBaseGLDate datetime--usually null, and   will use GLDate).

In this example, the system calculates a balance based on the Account,the GL Date, Normal or Cash, the GL to use (default, budget, estimateetc. . . . ), whether the user wants the balance at the beginning of theday or at the end of the day. For a Balance Sheet, the accountanttypically wants the balance at the end of a day. If the accountant isrunning an income statement, he typically wants the starting balance tobe the beginning of a day, plus the daily activity, and then the balanceat the end of a day.

The Current Earnings Base GL Date is special. Usually Revenue or Expenseaccounts are zeroed out when the end of Fiscal year comes. This isreferred to as closing a year. But, if the accountant wants to run anincome statement across fiscal years, say from December 1 to January 31(and your fiscal year ends on December 31), then he does not want tozero out the Revenue and Expense accounts for that report on December31.

In one example, the GLAccountBalance Function performs the followingcomprising:

-   -   (1) If the Current Earnings Base GL Date is not defined, then        set it to the GLDate.    -   (2) Get the Year of the GLDate.    -   (3) Get the 1^(st) day of the calendar year of the GL Date.    -   (4) Using the GLAccountID, get the Type of Account (Asset,        Liability, Owner Equity, Revenue or Expense), the Natural        Account Segment, and the Company Account Segment. If this is a        Revenue or Expense Account, then it is an Income Statement        Account, otherwise it is a Balance Sheet account. Income        Statement accounts are normally zeroed at year end. Balance        sheet accounts are typically not.    -   (5) If the Natural Segment is the special Current Earnings or        Retained Earnings Accounts, or the type of Account is an Income        Statement account, then:        -   (a) Get the Calendar that is being used by the company in            the company segment for determining the fiscal year end.        -   (b) Get the last Fiscal Year End date that is less than the            GLDate asked for. This will be the break point for the            Retained Earnings/Current Earnings.        -   (c) Set the Current Earnings date to 3 milliseconds more            than the Retained earnings date. 3 milliseconds was used            because that is the smallest increment for the database            engine for the DateTime field type used.    -   (6) If the start of day is needed, then subtract 3 milliseconds        from the GL Date asked for. This will really calculate the        balance as of 11:59:59.997 of the previous day, which is the        start of the next day.    -   (7) If the end user is asking for the Normal General Ledger,        then use the Normal Indexed Views described above. If the Cash        GL, then use the Cash Indexed Views.    -   (8) If the Account is the special Current Earnings Account        -   (a) This must be the sum of Revenue−Expense for the year of            the GL Date, going back to the beginning of the fiscal year.        -   (b) Set SumOfPreviousYears to 0.00.        -   (c) Calculate SumOfCurrentYear using the Daily Indexed View            for the specific GL Account, and the GLDate between the            start of the fiscal year and the GLDate asked for, using the            GL Type asked for (e.g. default, budget, estimate, etc. . .            . ). In one embodiment, a normal view or views are written            over the Indexed Views to provide the Current Earnings.    -   (9) If the Account is the special Retained Earnings Account        -   (a) This must be the sum of Revenue−Expense for the time            before the most recent year end of the GL Date, going back            to the beginning of time.        -   (b) Set SumOfPreviousYears to sum of the activity from the            yearly Indexed View. Look by GL Account, Sum for years            before the last fiscal year end.        -   (c) The fiscal year may not line up with the calendar year.        -   (d) Calculate SumOfCurrentYear using the Daily Indexed View            for the specific GL Account, and the GLDate between the            start of the calendar year and the end of the fiscal year            prior to the GLDate asked for, using the GL Type asked for            (e.g. default, budget, estimate, etc. . . . ).    -   (10) If this is an income Statement Account, then:        -   (a) This is the sum of account activity for the current year            starting with the fiscal year beginning.        -   (b) Set SumOfPreviousYears to 0.00        -   (c) Calculate Sum of Current Year using the Daily Indexed            View with GLDates between the CurrentEarnings Start Date and            the GLDate asked for.    -   (11) If this is a balance sheet account, then:        -   (a) This is the sum of account activity from the beginning            of time.        -   (b) Set SumOfPreviousYears to sum of Account Yearly activity            using the Yearly Indexed View. Use no beginning date. Look            for Years less than the Year of the GL Date asked for.        -   (c) Calculate Sum of Current Year using the Daily Indexed            View with GLDates between the First of the Year for the            GLDate asked for and the GLDate asked for. In one            embodiment, a normal view or views are written over the            Indexed Views to provide the Retained Earnings.    -   (10) Store the SumOfPreviousYears+SumOfCurrentYear to an        AccountBalance variable.

The Indexed Views described above calculate the Debits−Credits. This isgood for Assets and Expenses. Liability, Owner Equity and Revenue growon the Credit Side. Accordingly, the following steps are performed:

-   -   (11) If the account type was Liability, Owner Equity or Revenue,        then multiply the AccountBalance by −1.

(12) Return the AccountBalance. This is the Balance of the Account.

Account Number Maintenance Overview

Account Number maintenance may be used for either a computer implementedsingle or multi-company accounting system. In one embodiment, the systemuses Account Numbers for security and reporting. The system allowsIncome Statements to be reported on by any Business Segment, or anyNatural or Company Segment. Preferably, the data is kept clean andpertinent by using the correct Account Number when recording activitysuch as invoices, vouchers and/or journals.

The Problem

Through the normal course of business, it may be discovered that acertain Account was used incorrectly. For example, an office may havebeen assigned to an incorrect region. In typical accounting systems,once an entry (e.g. Account Number) is made into the General Ledger, theentry cannot be changed. Rather, accountants will do correcting journalsto amend the incorrect entry. Correcting journals are often confusingespecially when viewing financial reports. Moreover, correcting journalsonly affect the current accounting period while the data from previousaccounting periods is still incorrect.

Overview Solution

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the computerimplemented accounting system allows multiple solutions to maintainingdata cleanliness and pertinence. Referring to FIG. 28, the system canperform one or more of the following for maintenance of Account Numbersat 710:

-   -   1. Rename an Account at 712 by renaming an Account Segment at        714 of the Account.        -   a. Including renaming a Natural Account Segment number, a            Company Segment number, and/or any Business Segment number.            -   i. In the case of a Natural Account Segment number, the                system allows the Natural Account Segment to be changed                between Revenue and Expense, or between Asset, Liability                and Owner Equity.            -   ii. The system also allows the Natural Account Segment                to be changed from an Income Statement type Account                (e.g. Revenue or Expense) to a Balance Sheet type                Account (e.g. Asset, Liability, Owner Equity). This is                possible because the system calculates the Current and                Retained Earnings on demand by adding all Revenue and                Expense activities.    -   2. Changing the length of an Account Segment at 716.    -   3. Changing an Account Segment at 718 used on an Account.        -   a. Any or all of the Segments except for the Company Segment            can be changed.    -   4. Merging 2 different Accounts into 1 Account at 720.    -   5. Splitting one Account into 2 different Accounts at 722.

Items 1-3 from above do not require a change to the General Ledger.Rather, these items change the definition of an Account that the GeneralLedger points to or references. However, items 4 and 5 do change theGeneral Ledger, and this change is audited.

Renaming an Account Segment, Changing the Length of an Account Segment,or Changing an Account Segment Used on an Account

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, performing AccountNumber maintenance by renaming an Account at 712 or changing the lengthof an Account Segment at 716 or changing an Account Segment at 718 usedon an Account does not change the General Ledger. Rather, the GeneralLedger holds pointers (e.g. GLAccountID) to the Account, and the actualAccount Number is not stored in the General Ledger. Each Account itselfeffectively points to a Natural Account Segment, a Company Segment, andone of each of the Business Segment defined.

Rename an Account Segment

Renaming an Account Segment at 712 can be done for any segment includingthe Natural Account Segment, the Company Segment, and any BusinessSegment. Renaming an Account Segment renames the segment number or thesegment name that is displayed to the interface user. For example, aBusiness Segment may be renamed by renaming an office segment numberfrom AAA to ARB, or renaming the segment name from “AnnArbor” to “AnnArbor”, which adds a space.

When renaming an account segment number or an account segment name, thesystem automatically checks at 726 to make sure that the interface userhas not created a duplicate value within the same segment definition.For example, if both office segments AAA and ARB were already created,the system would not allow the interface user to rename the accountsegment AAA to ARB. Rather, the account segments AAA and ARB wouldpreferably be combined together into one Account using Merge Accounts,which is discussed in more detail below.

Renaming a segment automatically changes the Account Number at 724 forall accounts that use the corresponding segment. This is because theAccount Number is dynamically generated based on the segments that makeup the Account. Renaming the segment will have an instant affect on allAccount Numbers that use the segment because the Account Number displayis created on demand by the system.

Change the Length of an Account Segment

Each segment of the Account Number has a specific defined length (e.g.number of digits or characters). For example, the Account Number mayhave a 5 digit Natural Account Segment, and a 3 character CompanySegment, and a 2 character Business Region Segment, and a 3 characterBusiness Office Segment. The system allows the interface user to changethe length of any segment definition at 716.

If the length of a segment is to be increased (e.g. increasing thenumber of digits or characters), then the system adds a defaultcharacter at 730 correspondingly to the end of each existing segment.For example, if a 3 character Business Office Segment is to be changedto a 4 character Business Office Segment, then the system willautomatically add an underscore “_” to the end of each existing BusinessOffice Segment number. The default character is definable for eachsegment. In one example, the default character for a Natural Accountnumber is a zero “0” while the default character for the Company Segmentand each Business Segment is an underscore “_”. Other suitable defaultcharacters may also be used for any of the segments.

If the length of the segment is to be decreased or reduced (e.g.decreasing the number of digits or characters), then the systemautomatically checks at 728 that the shorter segment will not create aduplicate value. For a 3 character Business Office Segment, for example,where there are 2 offices defined in the system using segment numbers“AAA” and “AAB”, reducing the Business Office Segment to 2 characterswould create a duplicate segment number of “AA”. In this example, thesystem would automatically block the interface user from making thechange.

Change an Account Segment Used on an Account

In one example in accordance with the present invention, an Account mayhave been originally set up incorrectly. For instance, an office may beused on an Account with an incorrect region. In this scenario, theinterface user may want to change the region for that Account to thecorrect region and have this change affect all past and futureinformation. By changing the corresponding segment on the Account at 718(e.g. to the correct region), the General Ledger is not being changed.Rather, just the Account that the General Ledger points to is having itsdefinition changed. The system allows changes to the Natural Segment,and any Business Segment. The system however does not allow changes tothe Company Segment because the Company Segment is used as the balancingsegment for Balance Sheets, and a change to the Company Segment maycause an imbalance in accounting to occur.

When changing any Business Segment, such as changing the region in theexample mentioned, the system will automatically check to make sure thatthe interface user has not creating a duplicate Account with one thatalready existed. If the system finds that a duplicate Account is notbeing created by the change, then the system allows the change. Bychanging one or more of the segments that the Account points to, thiswill have an immediate effect on all past and future entries, as theAccount Number is effectively created on demand by the system from thesegments that are pointed to, e.g., by the GLAccountID.

Typical accounting systems do not allow changes to the Natural AccountSegment and therefore, do not allow changes to the account type of anAccount (e.g. account type being an Asset, a Liability, an Owner Equity,a Revenue or an Expense). For example, these systems do not allow aRevenue Account to be changed from anything other than a Revenueaccount.

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the system allowsan interface user to freely change the Natural Account Segment of anAccount at any time between any of an Asset, Liability, Owner Equity,Revenue or Expense. Since Revenue and Expense Accounts are IncomeStatement Accounts, and Asset, Liability, and Owner Equity Accounts areBalance Sheet Accounts, the system allows not only a change in theaccount type within a Balance Sheet type account or within an IncomeSheet type account, but also a change between a Balance Sheet typeaccount and an Income Sheet type account. This is because the systemcalculates the Current and Retained Earnings on demand by summing allpast Revenue and Expense Accounts.

Merging 2 Accounts into 1 Account or Splitting 1 Account into 2 Accounts

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, both merging andsplitting Accounts via the system changes the General Ledger. Inparticular, the GLAccountID used within the General Ledger is changed(unlike renaming an Account or changing the length of an Account Segmentor changing an Account Segment) so as to point to a different Account.This activity is extensive within the system and therefore, the systemlogs the change. When Accounts are merged or split, the GLAccountID ischanged throughout the entire system. This means changing theGLAccountID everywhere within the system including the General Ledger,Journals, Invoices, Vouchers, Credit Memos, Debit Memos, Quick ARChecks, Quick AP Checks, AP Checks, AR, Checks, Deposits, andInvestments.

Merging 2 Accounts into 1 Account

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the system allowsan interface user to merge 2 or more Accounts into a single Account at720. The interface user enters into the system a first segment number toreplace a second segment number at 732 for the Accounts of interest, andenters a specified criteria at 734 (e.g. specified time period, etc.)for merging the Accounts. The system then merges the Accounts at 736based on the specified criteria and by replacing the second segmentnumber with the first segment number.

In one example of merging Accounts, during the normal course of businessthere are multiple Accounts created where it is later decided that theseAccounts should have been the same Account. For instance, an accountantcreates an Expense Account for rent for an office and also adds indetails at the department level by adding in a specific value for adepartment. Later, it is determined that rent is a type of overheadexpense and therefore, the Account should not have details at thedepartment level. If there was more than one department in that office,then changing each Account to use the default department (e.g.underscores for the Business Segment number) would create duplicateAccounts when the specific department segment values are changed.

To further illustrate the above example, assume that the originallycreated 2 Accounts are as follows:

-   -   Rent-MyCompany-MyRegion-MyOffice-MortageDepartment    -   Rent-MyCompany-MyRegion-MyOffice-MutualFundDepartment.

Replacing the department level details with the default department forthe corresponding Business Segment for these 2 Accounts, results in thefollowing 2 Accounts:

-   -   Rent-MyCompany-MyRegion-MyOffice-DefaultDepartment    -   Rent-MyCompany-MyRegion-MyOffice-DefaultDepartment.

Clearly, the 2 accounts using the default department have the sameAccount Number. Here, the system enforces that each Account Number isunique and therefore, the 2 Accounts can be merged together when theircorresponding Business Segments are changed.

In another example of merging Accounts, Accounts Receivable accounts arecreated which includes defined Business Segments including a specificoffice Business Segment. Accounts Receivable is an Asset type account.By Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), Balance Sheet typeaccounts, which include Assets, Liability, and Owner Equity Accounts, donot use Business Segments. Rather, Balance Sheet type accounts usuallyjust use Natural Account Segments and Company Segments. Accordingly,upon an accounting audit or review it will likely be determined thatthese Accounts should be cleaned up and merged within the system suchthat the Accounts Receivable accounts that use a specific BusinessSegments are merged into an Accounts Receivable account that usesdefault Business Segments.

In the first example of merging Accounts (e.g. merging because there wasno interest in recording rent or otherwise at the department level), thesystem allows the interface user to leave data from the previous closedyears alone, and only merge the account data from a specific point intime, such as the beginning of a fiscal year.

Splitting 1 Account into 2 Accounts

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the system allowsthe interface user to split 1 Account into 2 different Accounts at 722.This includes the interface user entering into the system a new segmentnumber to replace an old segment number at 738 of an existing Account,and entering a specified criteria for splitting the Account at 740. Thesystem then converts the old Account to a new Account at 742 based onthe specified criteria and by replacing the old segment number with thenew segment number. The specified criteria can be the Natural AccountSegment, the Company Segment, the one or more Business Segments, a timeperiod, or a combination thereof. If the specified criteria includes thetime period, then prior to the time period specified the old Accountexists and for the time period specified the new account exists.

In one example of splitting an Account, during the normal course ofbusiness the company may decide to restructure the management hierarchyto be better align with changing customer needs. For instance, this mayinvolve moving an office from one region to another region at aspecified time, such as the beginning of a fiscal year or the beginningof a quarter. The accounting data entry people may not fully understandthe change, and may continue to record business using the olderstructure. Assume for example, that it takes 2 months before finding theerror. In this scenario, the data for the Account that was entered forthe past 2 months should be associated with a corrected Account usingthe correct region while leaving the data for the Account that is olderthan 2 months within the Account to represent the older managementhierarchy at that time. Accordingly, the system allows the Account to besplit where a new Account has only the last 2 months of data and theoriginal Account has the older than 2 months of data.

Merging or Splitting Account(s) Technical Details

Referring to FIG. 29 at least one embodiment of the present invention isprovided. The following steps are preformed for either merging Accountsor splitting an Account:

-   -   1. The Account(s) to be changed is/are identified. The system        has an Account search screen (screen shot #11 at 800) that        allows the interface user to specify account masks using segment        masks to identify which Accounts are of interest.    -   2. After the search, the interface user can further use check        boxes at 810 to specifically select Accounts that should be        merged or split.    -   3. The interface user may also specify a date range for merging        or splitting Account(s). Only activities with GL Dates between        the specified date range are affected.    -   4. The interface user then specifies which Business or Natural        Segments at 812 are to be changed. The system does not allow        changes to the Company Segments as this would cause the system        to become out of balance. The interface user chooses specific        “From” and “To” Business Segment values at 814.    -   5. For the Accounts that are to be changed and for the date        range specified, the system then searches through every table        such as the General Ledger, Journals, Invoices, AR Checks,        Deposits, Vouchers, AP Checks, Investments, Credit Memos, Debit        Memos. When an Account is found that is to be changed, the        system changes the Account pointed to within that table to point        to the new Account desired. That is, the GLAccountID is changed        in those tables.

Vendor Account Maintenance Overview

Through the normal course of business, it may be discovered that acertain Vendor Account or Vendor Accounts were used incorrectly andpreferably should be cleaned up. In at least one embodiment of thepresent invention, the system is used to clean up or maintain the VendorAccounts. The system uses Vendor Accounts for issuing checks that payvouchers to pay Vendors. The system allows the Vendor Accounts to bechanged, split or merged preferably to keep the data clean and pertinentby using the correct Vendor Accounts when recording activity and issuingchecks.

In at least one embodiment, the system allows an interface user tochange Vendors by an AP check or checks. An AP check may pay multiplevouchers. Each voucher paid by an AP check uses the same Vendor as thecheck that pays the voucher. If for example a mistake is made for aVendor used on 1 or more checks, the system allows the interface user tomake a change to the Vendor such that the Vendor changes on the checkand any voucher paid by the check. In some cases, the vouchers that arebeing changed have been paid by more than 1 check. In this situation,the system preferably changes the corresponding checks at the same timeto prevent the possibility of a voucher being paid by multiple checks todifferent vendors.

The system can split Vendors because the search for checks in the systemcan include other criteria based on any Account Segment. For example, ifthere are two distinct Vendors but both are identified in the system asABC Manufacturing, and there is one office (e.g. AA) in the companypaying one of the Vendors and another office (e.g. BB) in the companypaying the other Vendor, then when the mistake is discovered acorrection could be made to correct the mistake in the past. The systemallows an interface user to search for checks that paid vouchers wherethe voucher detail lines contain an Account using a specific BusinessSegment. That is, the interface user could search for checks paid to theVendor that pay vouchers having a specific Business Office Segment (e.g.AA), and specify that those checks change the Vendor (e.g. ABCManufacturing) to some other Vendor (e.g. DEF Manufacturing). The systemwould change the corresponding checks and the vouchers paid by thechecks. If the check or voucher being paid was previously posted to theGeneral Ledger, the Vendor Attribute at the General Ledger will also bechanged.

In at least one embodiment of the present invention, the system alsoallows an interface user to merge Vendors by searching for checks paidto a Vendor. The Vendor on those checks may then be changed to anotherexisting Vendor.

Spitting 1 Vendor into 2 Vendors

Referring to FIG. 30, at least one embodiment of a method of performingVendor Account maintenance on one or more Vendors within a single ormulti-company accounting system at 820 is provided. In one example, theVendor within the system is associated with a particular address of abusiness entity.

The method includes splitting a first Vendor into first and secondVendors at 822 such that, for example, the first Vendor is one businessentity with an address different than the address of the business entityof the second Vendor. The first and second Vendors may correspond to thesame business entity with different addresses or alternatively, they maycorrespond to different business entities with different addresses.

The method further includes the interface user using the system toidentify checks at 824 that pay the vouchers associated with the firstVendor defining identified checks. In particular, the interface useruses the system to search for the checks that pay vouchers havingvoucher detail lines containing an Account with a specific BusinessSegment of the company. The interface user also specifies searchcriteria at 826 for changing the first Vendor to the second Vendor at828 associated with the identified checks. Non-limiting examples of thesearch criteria are a specified bank account, a specified amount ofmoney, a specified check number, a specified description, a specifiedcompany, a specified interface user who entered data into the system, aspecified check type, a specified subaccount, or a specified date range.

The system then changes the first Vendor to the second Vendor at 830 forthe identified checks issued as of the specified search criteria, andfor the vouchers associated with the identified checks.

Merging 2 or More Vendors into 1 Vendor

At least one other embodiment of a method of performing Vendor Accountmaintenance on one or more Vendors within a single or multi-companyaccounting system at 820 is provided. The method includes merging two ormore Vendors at 840 including first and second Vendors into a singleVendor within the system as of a specified search criteria based on oneor more checks that pay one or more vouchers associated with each of thetwo or more Vendors. In one example, each of the Vendors corresponds isassociated with a particular address of a business entity. Moreover,non-limiting examples of the specified search criteria are a specifiedbank account, a specified amount of money, a specified check number, aspecified description, a specified company, a specified interface userwho entered data into the system, a specified check type, a specifiedsubaccount, or a specified date range.

The method includes the interface user using the system to identify oneor more checks at 842 that pay one or more vouchers associated with thefirst Vendor to define first identified checks. The one or more checksthat pay the one or more vouchers associated with the second Vendor arealso identified to define second identified checks. In one example, thesystem searches for the checks that pay the vouchers having voucherdetail lines containing an Account with a specific Business Segment inorder to associate the checks with either the first or second Vendor.

The method further includes the interface user using the system tospecify the first Vendor changing to the second Vendor for the firstidentified checks at 844. The system then changes the first Vendor tothe second Vendor at 846 for the first identified checks so that thefirst and second identified checks are associated with the secondVendor. The system can also change the vouchers associated with thefirst identified checks to be associated with the second Vendor.

In one embodiment, if the first identified checks or the associatedvouchers are posted to the General Ledger, then a Vendor Attribute willchange to correspond to the second Vendor instead of the first Vendor.

Example of Merging Vendors

Referring to FIGS. 31-33, an example of merging 2 Vendors into a singleVendor to perform Vendor Account maintenance within the system isprovided. In particular, FIG. 31 is an example of a system screen shot(screen shot #12 at 850) of a Vendor Merger Check Search Screen forVendor SMITHC—CHRISTINE SMITH; FIG. 32 is an example of a system screenshot (screen shot #13 at 852) of a Vendor Split Merge Screen VendorCSMITH—CHRISTINE SMITH; and FIG. 33 is an example of a system screenshot (screen shot #14 at 854) after Vendor CSMITH—CHRISTINE SMITH ismerged with Vendor SMITHC—CHRISTINE SMITH.

Initially, an interface user conducts an AP Vendor search at 856 in thesystem for Christine Smith with search criteria at 858 of “Vender” at860. Results of the search indicate that two Vendors are being used bythe system, one for SMITHC—CHRISTINE SMITH where checks at 864associated with Account Segment HFS (e.g. Financial Services) at 865have been issued, and the other for CSMITH—CHRISTINE SMITH where checksat 866 associated with Account Segment TRX (e.g. Mortgage Services) at867 have been issued. Upon further investigation, assume it isdetermined that both CSMITH—CHRISTINE SMITH and SMITHC—CHRISTINE SMITHare the same Vendor and that the system should be cleaned up to reflectthem as a single Vendor.

Referring to FIG. 32, the interface user selects the VendorCSMITH—CHRISTINE SMITH changing to the Vendor SMITHC—CHRISTINE SMITH at870, and then selects “Delete old Vendor if no longer used” at 872 and“Change Vendor” at 874. As illustrated in FIG. 33, this results inmerging the Vendor CSMITH—CHRISTINE SMITH with the VendorSMITHC—CHRISTINE SMITH into one Vendor which is identified in the systemas SMITHC—CHRISTINE SMITH at 874. Notably, all of the checks at 876 thatwere formally for both Vendors CSMITH—CHRISTINE SMITH andSMITHC—CHRISTINE SMITH are now associated with SMITHC—CHRISTINE SMITHwhile maintaining the proper Account Segments at 878 that issued thechecks to each of the Vendors, thereby merging the 2 Vendors into 1Vendor within the system.

The Computer Arrangement for Operation of the Accounting System

Referring to FIG. 10, an illustrative embodiment of a general computerarrangement is shown and is designated 110. The computer arrangement 110can include a set of instructions that can be executed to cause thecomputer arrangement 110 to perform any one or more of the systemmethods or computer based functions disclosed herein. The computerarrangement 110 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected,e.g., using a network, to other computer arrangements or peripheraldevices.

In a networked deployment, the computer arrangement may operate in thecapacity of a server or as a client user computer in a server-clientuser network environment, or as a peer computer arrangement in apeer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. The computerarrangement 110 can also be implemented as or incorporated into variousdevices, such as a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box(STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile device, a palmtopcomputer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a communicationsdevice, a wireless telephone, a land-line telephone, a control system, acamera, a scanner, a facsimile machine, a printer, a pager, a personaltrusted device, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, orany other machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequentialor otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. In aparticular embodiment, the computer arrangement 110 can be implementedusing electronic devices that provide voice, video or datacommunication. Further, while a single computer arrangement 110 isillustrated, the term “arrangement” shall also be taken to include anycollection of systems or sub-systems that individually or jointlyexecute a set, or multiple sets, of instructions to perform one or morecomputer functions.

As illustrated in FIG. 10, the computer arrangement 110 may include aprocessor 112, e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), or both. Moreover, the computer arrangement 110can include a main memory 114 and a static memory 116 that cancommunicate with each other via a bus 118. As shown, the computerarrangement 110 may further include a video display unit 120, such as aliquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), aflat panel display, a solid state display, or a cathode ray tube (CRT).Additionally, the computer arrangement 110 may include an input device122, such as a keyboard, and a cursor control device 124, such as amouse. The computer arrangement 110 can also include a disk drive unit126, a signal generation device 128, such as a speaker or remotecontrol, and a network interface device 130.

In a particular embodiment, as depicted in FIG. 10, the disk drive unit126 may include a computer-readable medium 132 in which one or more setsof instructions 134, e.g., embodiments of the Multi-Company accountingsystem and related methods of the present invention embedded insoftware, can be embedded. Further, the instructions 134 may embody oneor more of the methods or logic as described herein. In a particularembodiment, the instructions 134 may reside completely, or at leastpartially, within the main memory 114, the static memory 116, and/orwithin the processor 112 during execution by the computer arrangement110. The main memory 114 and the processor 82 also may includecomputer-readable media.

In an alternative embodiment, dedicated hardware implementations, suchas application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arraysand other hardware devices, can be constructed to implement one or moreof the methods described herein. Applications that may include theapparatus and systems of various embodiments can broadly include avariety of electronic and computer arrangements. One or more embodimentsdescribed herein may implement functions using two or more specificinterconnected hardware modules or devices with related control and datasignals that can be communicated between and through the modules, or asportions of an application-specific integrated circuit. Accordingly, thepresent arrangement encompasses software, firmware, and hardwareimplementations.

In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, themethods described herein may be implemented by software programsexecutable by the computer arrangement 110. Further, in an exemplary,non-limited embodiment, implementations can include distributedprocessing, component/object distributed processing, and parallelprocessing. Alternatively, virtual computer arrangement processing canbe constructed to implement one or more of the methods or functionalityas described herein.

The present disclosure contemplates a computer-readable medium thatincludes instructions 134 or receives and executes instructions 134responsive to a propagated signal so that a device connected to anetwork 136 can communicate voice, video or data over the network 136.Further, the instructions 134 may be transmitted or received over thenetwork 136 via the network interface device 130.

While the computer-readable medium is shown to be a single medium, theterm “computer-readable medium” includes a single medium or multiplemedia, such as a centralized or distributed database, and/or associatedcaches and servers that store one or more sets of instructions. The term“computer-readable medium” shall also include any medium that is capableof storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution bya processor or that cause a computer arrangement to perform any one ormore of the methods or operations disclosed herein.

In a particular non-limiting, exemplary embodiment, thecomputer-readable medium can include a solid-state memory such as amemory card or other package that houses one or more non-volatileread-only memories. Further, the computer-readable medium can be arandom access memory or other volatile re-writable memory. Additionally,the computer-readable medium can include a magneto-optical or opticalmedium, such as a disk or tapes.

Although the present specification describes components and functionsthat may be implemented in particular embodiments with reference toparticular standards and protocols, the invention is not limited to suchstandards and protocols. For example, standards for Internet and otherpacket switched network transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP)represent examples of the state of the art. Such standards areperiodically superseded by faster or more efficient equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards andprotocols having the same or similar functions as those disclosed hereinare considered equivalents thereof.

The illustrations of the embodiments described herein are intended toprovide a general understanding of the structure of the variousembodiments. The illustrations are not intended to serve as a completedescription of all of the elements and features of apparatus and systemsthat utilize the structures or methods described herein. Many otherembodiments may be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewingthe disclosure. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived from thedisclosure, such that structural and logical substitutions and changesmay be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure.Additionally, the illustrations are merely representational and may notbe drawn to scale. Certain proportions within the illustrations may beexaggerated, while other proportions may be minimized. Accordingly, thedisclosure and the figures are to be regarded as illustrative ratherthan restrictive.

One or more embodiments of the disclosure may be referred to herein,individually and/or collectively, by the term “invention” merely forconvenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of thisapplication to any particular invention or inventive concept. Moreover,although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, it should be appreciated that any subsequent arrangementdesigned to achieve the same or similar purpose may be substituted forthe specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover anyand all subsequent adaptations or variations of various embodiments.Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments notspecifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in theart upon reviewing the description.

In the Detailed Description, various features may be grouped together ordescribed in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining thedisclosure. This disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting anintention that the claimed embodiments require more features than areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claimsreflect, inventive subject matter may be directed to less than all ofthe features of any of the disclosed embodiments. Thus, the followingclaims are incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claimstanding on its own as defining separately claimed subject matter.

The above disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, andnot restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all suchmodifications, enhancements, and other embodiments, which fall withinthe true spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, to the maximumextent allowed by law, the scope of the present invention is to bedetermined by the broadest permissible interpretation of the followingclaims and their equivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited bythe foregoing detailed description.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method for account number maintenance used within a single or multi-company accounting system that operates on a computer arrangement and which is accessible by one or more persons defining an interface user, the method comprising: at a processor, performing the account number maintenance on at least one of a plurality of accounts within the single or multi-company accounting system, each of the accounts having a plurality of account segments defining the account including a natural account segment, a company segment, and one or more business segments, the natural account segment defining a specific type of one of an asset, a liability, an owner equity, a revenue and an expense, the company segment associated with one of one or more companies associated with the accounting system, and the one or more business segments each having a definable category for tracking money within the accounting system, wherein performing the account number maintenance comprises: i) the interface user entering into the single or multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement a specified criteria for splitting one or more of the accounts, wherein the specified criteria specifies: segments used in the one or more of the accounts comprising the natural account segment, the company segment, the one or more business segments, or a combination thereof; and optionally a time period that defines a specific number of days; ii) identifying the one or more of the accounts to be split via a search using the specified criteria; and iii) splitting the one or more of the accounts each into two different accounts that includes an old account and a new account, wherein the step of splitting one or more of the accounts comprises: the interface user entering into the single or multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement a new segment value to replace an old segment value of the natural account segment or one of the business segments; the single or multi-company accounting system converting the old account to a new account based on the specified criteria including replacing the old segment value for the old account with the new segment value of the natural account segment or the one of the business segments to define the new account, wherein if the specified criteria includes the time period, then no change is made to a General Ledger before or after the time period and splitting of each of the one or more of the accounts is done in the General Ledger only for activity with a General Ledger date within the time period; and the single or multi-company accounting system automatically changing a GL Account ID within the General Ledger to point to the new account with the new account segment instead of the old account based on the specified criteria.
 2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of splitting one of the accounts into two different accounts includes: the interface user entering into the single or multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement the new segment value to replace the old segment value of the natural account segment; and the single or multi-company accounting system converting the old account to the new account based on the specified criteria including replacing the old segment value for the old account with the new segment value of the natural account segment to define the new account.
 3. The method according to claim 2 wherein the single or multi-company accounting system automatically creates the new account if the new account did not already exist.
 4. The method according to claim 2 wherein one of the business segments can be specified to merge at least one additional account into the new account.
 5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of splitting one of the accounts into two different accounts includes: the interface user entering into the single or multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement the new segment value to replace the old segment value of a first business segment; and the single or multi-company accounting system converting the old account to the new account based on the specified criteria including replacing the old segment value for the old account with the new segment value of the first business segment to define the new account.
 6. The method according to claim 5 wherein the single or multi-company accounting system automatically creates the new account if the new account did not already exist.
 7. The method according to claim 5 wherein a second business segment can be specified to merge at least one additional account into the new account.
 8. A single or multi-company accounting system for providing a computer implemented method for account number maintenance and which is accessible by one or more persons defining an interface user, the system comprising: a computer arrangement operative to: perform the account number maintenance on at least one of a plurality of accounts within the single or multi-company accounting system, each of the accounts having a plurality of account segments defining the account including a natural account segment, a company segment, and one or more business segments, the natural account segment defining a specific type of one of an asset, a liability, an owner equity, a revenue and an expense, the company segment associated with one of one or more companies associated with the accounting system, and the one or more business segments each having a definable category for tracking money within the accounting system, wherein performing the account number maintenance comprises: i) the interface user entering into the single or multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement a specified criteria for splitting one or more of the accounts, wherein the specified criteria specifies: segments used in the one or more of the accounts comprising the natural account segment, the company segment, the one or more business segments, or a combination thereof; and optionally a time period that defines a specific number of days; ii) identifying the one or more of the accounts to be split via a search using the specified criteria; and iii) splitting the one or more of the accounts each into two different accounts that includes an old account and a new account, wherein the step of splitting one or more of the accounts comprises: the interface user entering into the single or multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement a new segment value to replace an old segment value of the natural account segment or one of the business segments; the single or multi-company accounting system converting the old account to a new account based on the specified criteria including replacing the old segment value for the old account with the new segment value of the natural account segment or the one of the business segments to define the new account, wherein if the specified criteria includes the time period, then no change is made to a General Ledger before or after the time period and splitting of each of the one or more of the accounts is done in the General Ledger only for activity with a General Ledger date within the time period; and the single or multi-company accounting system automatically changing a GL Account ID within the General Ledger to point to the new account with the new account segment instead of the old account based on the specified criteria.
 9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions for providing a computer implemented method for account number maintenance used within a single or multi-company accounting system which is accessible by one or more persons defining an interface user, the set of instructions to direct a processor to perform acts of: performing the account number maintenance on at least one of a plurality of accounts within the single or multi-company accounting system, each of the accounts having a plurality of account segments defining the account including a natural account segment, a company segment, and one or more business segments, the natural account segment defining a specific type of one of an asset, a liability, an owner equity, a revenue and an expense, the company segment associated with one of one or more companies associated with the accounting system, and the one or more business segments each having a definable category for tracking money within the accounting system, wherein performing the account number maintenance comprises: i) the interface user entering into the single or multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement a specified criteria for splitting one or more of the accounts, wherein the specified criteria specifies: segments used in the one or more of the accounts comprising the natural account segment, the company segment, the one or more business segments, or a combination thereof; and optionally a time period that defines a specific number of days; ii) identifying the one or more of the accounts to be split via a search using the specified criteria; and iii) splitting the one or more of the accounts each into two different accounts that includes an old account and a new account, wherein the step of splitting one or more of the accounts comprises: the interface user entering into the single or multi-company accounting system via the computer arrangement a new segment value to replace an old segment value of the natural account segment or one of the business segments; the single or multi-company accounting system converting the old account to a new account based on the specified criteria including replacing the old segment value for the old account with the new segment value of the natural account segment or the one of the business segments to define the new account, wherein if the specified criteria includes the time period, then no change is made to a General Ledger before or after the time period and splitting of each of the one or more of the accounts is done in the General Ledger only for activity with a General Ledger date within the time period; and the single or multi-company accounting system automatically changing a GL Account ID within the General Ledger to point to the new account with the new account segment instead of the old account based on the specified criteria. 